f-/ 


-  "j%  %  \ 


NUTS 


FOR 


Future    Historians   to    Crack 


COLLECTED    BY 


HORACE    W.    SMITH. 


CONTAINING    THE 

CADWALADER    PAMPHLET,   VALLEY     FORGE    LETTERS 

etc.,  etc.,  etc. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

HORACE  W.  SMITH,  20  SOUTH   SIXTH   STREET, 
i  856. 


INTRODUCTION, 


For  some  years  I  had  been  engaged  in  collecting 
material  for  a  life  of  my  great  grandfather,  the  Rev. 
William  Smith,  D.  D.,  Provost  of  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania,  and  in  doing  so,  I  read  all  the  Biblio 
graphical  and  Historical  works  which  I  thought  conld 
in  any  way  make  mention  of  him.  In  no  case  did  I 
find  anything  said  against  his  character  as  a  man,  until 
I  read  Wm.  B.  Reed's  Life  of  his  grandfather,  Gen. 
Joseph  Reed.  His  remarks  were  uncalled  for  and 
ungentlemanly ;  what  they  were,  amount  to  nothing, 
as  they  were  untrue ;  and  therefore  not  worth  repeating. 
My  first  idea  was  to  speak  of  Gen.  Joseph  Reed  in 
the  same  manner,  though  with  more  truth ;  but  find 
ing  the  truth  had  been  suppressed,  and  that  to  publish 
all  I  could  wish  in  regard  to  Reed,  would  take  up 
too  much  room  in  my  work,  and  be  departing  from 
my  original  design,  I  therefore,  concluded  to  publish 
all  the  historical  facts  in  regard  to  Reed  in  a  small 
volume  by  itself,  and  to  publish  such  an  edition,  that 
it  could  not  be  bought  up  and  destroyed. 


M187284 


I  have  taken  the  liberty  of  using  the  following 
extracts  from  an  article  published  in  the  Fireside 
Visitor — by  J.  M.  Church.  Whom  it  was  written  by  I 
do  not  know,  but  the  writer  evidently  understood  his 
subject. 

"  When  it  was  announced  that  Mr.  Irving  was 
about  to  present  to  the  public  a  life  of  Washington, 
we  hailed  the  information  with  feelings  of  delight,  not 
unmingled  with  gratitude,  that  the  illustrious  author 
of  '  Columbus,'  the  Sketch  Book,  and  Knickerbocker 
should  make  the  crowning  work  of  his  life  and  literary 
labors,  the  history  of  the  greatest  and  purest  of 
patriots,  so  dear  to  the  hearts  of  all  his  countrymen, 
and  one  who,  the  more  time  and  investigation  develop 
and  explain  his  motives  and  actions,  the  greater  and 
nobler  he  appears.  Our  expectations  were  great  when 
we  contemplated  the  vast  field  that  time  had  laid  open 
to  the  historian ;  and  though  Marshall  and  Sparks  had 
left  but  little  to  do,  we  felt  there  was  still  enough  to 
make  Mr.  Irving's  the  greatest  history  of  that  greatest 
of  men. 

On  the  appearances  of  the  first  volume,  a  number  of 
errors  were  noticed  by  the  press,  which  were  subse 
quently  corrected.  The  most  important  one,  that  in 
relation  to  Major  Stobo,  we  are  glad  to  see  fully  ex 
plained  and  corrected  in  a  note  at  the  end  of  the 
second  volume.  In  the  early  part  of  the  second 
volume,  however,  a  far  graver  error  occurs,  we  mean 
Mr.  Irving's  estimate  of  the  conduct  and  character  of 
Gen.  Reed,  and  is  it  mainly  the  object  of  this  commu 
nication  to  set  that  matter  in  its  true  light. 


5 

Who  can  read  without  emotion  of  the  trials  and 
difficulties  that  beset  Washington  throughout  the 
whole  of  his  career  ?  A  Congress  so  corrupt,  that 
Livingston  writes,  '  I  am  so  discouraged  by  our  public 
mismanagement,  and  the  additional  load  of  business 
thrown  upon  me  by  the  villainy  of  those  who  pursue 
nothing  but  accumulating  fortunes,  to  the  ruin  of  their 
country,  that  I  almost  sink  under  it.'  False  friends 
and  traitors  intrigue  against  him — even  Gen.  Reed, 
the  very  man  Mr.  Irving  so  delighted  to  honor,  and 
an  inmate  of  his  household,  writes  a  letter  to  Gen. 
Lee,  the  aspiring  rival  of  Washington,  reflecting,  with 
harsh  severity,  on  the  conduct  and  character  of  his 
commander  and  benefactor.  Lee's  answer  fell  into 
the  hands  of  Washington,  and  was  read  by  him  during 
the  absence  of  Reed,  who  made  no  attempt  at  an 
explanation  until  Lee  was  taken  prisoner.  He  then 
endeavored  to  explain  the  delay,  by  saying  that  he  had 
been  in  the  meantime  endeavoring  to  get  possession 
of  his  letter,  in  order  that  he  might  show  to  Wash 
ington  that  it  contained  nothing  to  call  forth  the 
violent  answer  of  Gen.  Lee,  and,  '  In  the  meantime,' 
writes  Reed,  '  I  most  solemnly  assure  you,  that  you 
would  see  in  it  nothing  inconsistent  with  that  respect 
and  affection  which  I  have,  and  ever  shall  bear  to 
your  person  and  character.'  Who  can  read  this  with 
out  being  shocked  at  the  falsehood  of  the  man  ! 

It  was,  indeed,  fortunate  for  Reed,  that  Washington 
never  saw  that  letter.  But  how  could  Mr.  Irving 
quote  a  portion  of  so  important  a  document,  while  he 
suppressed  the  material  part  I  Indeed,  we  are  tempted 
to  believe  that  some  other  hand  had  supervised  those 
pages,  before  they  were  presented  to  the  public. 


6 

We  conceive  it  to  be  the  duty  of  an  impartial  his 
torian  to  collect  facts,  and  present  them  to  his  readers, 
and  he  is  guilty  of  falsifying  history  who  suppresses 
them.  His  readers  have  the  same  right  to  all  the 
evidence  that  bears  upon  important  occurrence  that  he 
has,  and  though  the  author  may  give  his  views  and 
conclusions,  the  reader  is  not  of  necessity  compelled  to 
agree  with  him.  We  for  one,  must  beg  leave  to  differ 
from  Mr.  Irving  in  his  estimate  of  Reed's  character, 
and  we  doubt  not  that  every  one  reading  his  letter  will 
sustain  us  in  our  opinion,  that  his  conduct  was  false 
and  treacherous  in  the  extreme. 

In  order  properly  to  appreciate  the  baseness  of  Heed's 
conduct,  it  is  necessary  to  consider  the  circumstances 
under  which  it  occurred.  It  was  immediately  after 
Washington  had  experienced  the  most  trying  reverses. 
Fort  Washington  had  just  been  captured ;  over  two 
thousand  men  had  been  taken  prisoners,  and  his  own 
eyes  had  beheld  his  men,  partners  of  his  toil,  bayoneted 
and  cut  down  while  they  begged  for  quarter.  The 
Jerseys  were  overrun,  and  Philadelphia  threatened  by 
the  enemy.  Add  to  this,  the  accounts  he  received  from 
Congress  of  the  state  of  affairs  at  home,  and  it  wanted 
but  the  discovery  of  such  treachery  to  crush  a  spirit  less 
mighty  than  his. 

It  appears  strange  that  Mr.  Irving  should  form 
such  an  undue  estimate  of  Reed's  character,  nor 
can  we  believe  him  to  be  ignorant  of  what  was  his 

o 

real  position  and  standing  among  his  brother  officers. 
As  early  as  1776,  when  Reed  contemplated  resigning 
his  commission  as  Adjutant  General,  the  announce 
ment  was  hailed  with  pleasure,  for  Reed  had  few 
friends.  Col.  Trumbull,  writing  to  a  member  of 


Congress  on  the  subject,  says,  "  I  heard  Jos.  Reed 
had  sent  his  resignation  some  time  ago ;  in  the  name 
of  common  sense,  why  is  it  not  accepted  I  That 
man's  want  of  abilities  in  his  office  had  introduced 
the  greatest  disorders  and  want  of  discipline  into  the 
army;  it  ought  to  originate  from  that  office.  Then 
he  had  done  more  to  raise  and  keep  up  a  jealousy 
between  the  New  England  and  other  troops,  than  all 
the  men  in  the  army  besides.  Indeed,  his  stinking 
pride,  as  General  George  Clinton  expresses  it,  has  gone 
so  far,  that  1  expect  every  day  to  hear  he  is  called  to 
account  by  some  officer  or  other ;  indeed,  he  is  uni 
versally  hated  and  despised,  and  it  is  high  time  he  was 
displaced."  If  Mr.  Irving  has  not  seen  that  letter,  we 
refer  him  to  the  New  York  Gazette,  of  December  the 
9th,  1776,  or  to  Mr.  Peter  Force's  American  Archives, 
if  that  work  be  more  accessible  to  him. 

We  have  still  another  complaint  of  omission  to  make 
against  Mr.  Irving,  and  we  think  it  too  important  a 
point  in  the  history  of  Gen.  Heed  to  be  overlooked. 

A  few  days  previous  to  the  battle  of  Trenton,  when 
affairs  were  most  gloomy,  and  not  a  single  star  appeared 
to  give  the  faintest  glimmer  of  hope,  Heed  appeared 
despondent :  "  He  felt  the  game  was  up,  and  there  was 
no  use  of  following  the  wretched  remains  of  a  broken 
army ;  he  had  a  family,  and  it  was  but  right  that  he 
should  look  after  their  interests ;  besides,  the  time  had 
nearly  expired  during  which  they  could  avail  them 
selves  of  the  pardon  offered  by  Gen.  Howe  to  all  those 
who  should  go  over  to  the  enemy."  Such  were  the 
lamentations  of  Gen.  Reed,  until,  in  the  agony  of  his 
fears,  he  communicated  them  to  Gen.  Cadwalader. 
The  feelings  of  that  high-minded,  chivalrous  soldier 


8 

* 

can  hardly  be  imagined — his  first  impulse  was  to  order 
Eeed  under  the  arrest,  but  was  deterred  for  fear  of 
the  effect  the  example  might  have  on  the  men.     He, 
however   remonstrated  with  him,  and  his  arguments 
appeared    for    the    time    to    restore    his    composure. 
During  the  night  previous  to  the  battle  of  Trenton, 
Reed  lay  concealed  in  Burlington,  in  anxious  expecta 
tion  of  the  result  of  Washington's  great  master-stroke. 
He  had    opposed   the    enterprise  in  his   communi 
cations   with  Washington,  by  the  most   discouraging 
representations,  and  now  anxiously  awaited  the  result. 
His  fears  were  worked  up  to  the  highest  pitch ;  and 
the  burthen  of  his  conversation  was,  how  he  should 
protect  himself.    He  had  with  him  a  companion  in  his 
weakness,  and  the  determination  they  both  came  to 
was,  to  go  over  to  the  enemy  early  in  the  morning. 
Before,  however,  they  could  execute  their  intentions, 
the  news  arived  of  the  victory  of  the  Americans,  the 
turning  point  in  our  country's  fortunes,  which  gave 
hope  to  the  people  and  courage  to  Gen.  Heed. 

A  few  years  after  these  transactions,  Reed  was 
accused  in  the  public  newspapers  of  having  meditated 
a  desertion  to  the  enemy.  He  replied  in  a  pamphlet, 
in  which  he  attempted  to  defend  himself,  and  addressed 
it  to  Gen.  Cadwalader,  whom  he  conceived  to  be  the 
author  of  the  charges  and  between  whom  and  himself 
there  was  some  unfriendly  feelings,  arising  out  of 
pecuniary  transactions  between  them.  Cadwalader 
came  out  with  a  crushing  *"  Reply,"  in  which  though 
he  denied  having  published  the  statements  in  the 
newspapers,  he  yet  affirmed  the  truth  of  them,  and 

*  Reed  always  said  that  this  reply  was  the  joint  protection  of  Benj.  Rush,  Dr 
"\Vm.  Smith  and  Gen.  John  Cadwalader. 


brought  such  overwhelming  proofs  to  sustain  his 
charges,  that  the  public  lost  all  confidence  in  Reed, 
and  failed  to  re-elect  him  to  the  office  he  had  just 
held.  It  is  not  within  the  limits  of  an  article  like 
this  to  go  through  Gen.  Cadwalader's  pamphlet, 
suffice  it  to  say,  he  was  supported  by  Alexander 
Hamilton,  Dickinson,  Doct.  Rush,  Bradford,  and 
numerous  others.  Among  other  things,  it  was  proved 
that  previous  to  the  battle  of  Trenton,  Reed  had  sent 
to  Count  Dunop,  who  commanded  at  Bordentown,  to 
ask  if  he  could  have  a  protection  for  himself  and  a 
friend.  The  messenger  narrowly  escaped  being  hanged, 
through  the  intercession  of  a  friend  of  Count  Dunop. 
This  is  corroborated  by  an  extract  from  the  Diary  of 
"  Mrs.  Margaret  Morris." 


10 


Extract  from  a  Journal  kept  by  Margaret  Morris, 
for  the  amusement  and  information  of  her  sister 
Mitcah  Martha  Moore.  Her  residence  at  the  time, 
was  on  the  "  bank"  at  Burlington,  N".  J.,  at  the  corner 
of  Ellis  Street. 

"  January  4th,  1777,  we  were  told  by  a  woman  who 
lodged  in  the  same  room  where  General  Reed  and 

Colonel    C took  -  shelter,   when    the    battle    of 

Trenton  dispersed  the  Americans,  that  they  (Reed  and 

C )  had  laid  awake  all  night  consulting  together 

about  the  best  means  of  securing  themselves,  and  that 
they  came  to  the  determination  of  setting  off  next  day 
as  soon  as  it  was  light  to  the  British  Camp,  and 
joining  them  with  all  the  men  under  their  command. 
But  when  the  morning  came  an  express  arrived  with 
an  account  that  the  Americans  had  gained  a  great 
victory.  The  English  made  to  flee  before  the  ragged 
American  Regiments.  This  report  put  the  rebel 
General  and  Colonel  in  high  spirits,  and  they  con 
cluded  to  remain  firm  to  the  cause  of  America.  They 
paid  me  a  visit,  and  though  in  my  heart  I  despised 
them — treated  them  civilly,  and  was  on  the  point  of 
telling  them  their  conversation  the  preceding  night 
had  been  conveyed  to  me  on  the  wings  of  the  wind, 
but  on  second  thought  gave  it  up — though  perhaps  the 
time  may  come  when  they  may  hear  more  about  it." 

There  is  still  another  page  in  the  life  of  Gen.  Reed 
that  remains  to  be  told,  and  that  is  the  attempt 
alleged  to  have  been  made  by  Mrs.  Ferguson  to  bribe 
him.  All  are  familiar  with  his  intensely  patriotic 
reply,  refusing  ten  thousand  pounds,  and  the  best  office 


11 

in  the  colonies,  in  his  Majesty's  gift.  To  be  sure, 
Gov.  Johnstone,*  in  a  speech  before  Parliament,  most 
emphatically  denied  having  employed  fMrs.  Ferguson 
to  offer  to  Gen,  Reed  any  bribe  whatever,  while  at  the 
same  time  he  admits  that  other  means  besides  persua 
sion  were  used.  Does  he  allude  to  the  pair  of  elegant 
pistols  that  Reed  accepted  after  the  attempt  to  bribe 
him,  and  with  which  he  was  charged  in  the  public 
papers  I  But  Mr.  Irving  has  not  yet  approached  this 
delicate  subject,  and  to  his  able  hands  we  leave  it, 
fully  conscious  he  will  give  it  the  attention  so  impor 
tant  a  circumstance  requires. 

Should  he  fail,  however,  to  do  justice  to  Gen.  Reed 
in  this  matter,  he  will  pardon  us  if  we  again  take  the 
liberty  of  addressing  him  on  the  subject. 

"We  have  been  careful  in  our  strictures  upon  the 
character  and  conduct  of  Gen.  Reed  to  assert  nothing 
that  unquestionable  evidence  does  not  sustain ;  and  if 
by  our  remarks  we  have  lowered  him  from  the  unde 
served  eminence  to  which  the  injudicious  zeal  of 
interested  parties  has  so  industriously  labored  to 
elevate  him,  this  result  must  rather  be  attributed  to 
the  weakness  of  the  support,  and  the  frailty  of  the 
statue,  than  to  the  vigor  of  the  blows  we  have  be 
stowed  upon  it. 

The  most  we  have  done  has  been  to  remove  the 
deceptive  varnish,  and  the  idol  has  fallen  to  pieces. 

T.  S.  P. 

*  See  Gov.  Johnstone's  speech  in  the  House  of  Commons,  March,  9th, 
1779,  to  be  found  in  the  Philadelphia  Library  in  a  volume  of  the  Penn 
sylvania  Packet,  February  20th,  1779,  No.  384. 

t  Mrs.  Ferguson's  letter  will  be  found  in  the  same  volume  in  the 
Numbers  for  February  20th,  and  March  9th. 


12 


Proceedings  of  a  General  Court  Martial  of  the  line, 
held  at  Raritan  in  the  State  of  Xew  Jersey,  for  the 
trial  of  Major  General  Arnold,  Published  by  order  of 
Congress,  Philadelphia. 

Printed  by  Francis  Bailey  in  Market  Street,  1780. 

Extract  from  the  defence  of  General  Arnold. 

"  On  this  occasion  I  think  I  may  be  allowed  to  say, 
without  vanity,  that  my  conduct,  from  the  earliest 
period  of  the  war  to  the  present  time,  has  been  steady 
and  uniform.  I  have  ever  obeyed  the  calls  of  my 
country,  and  stepped  forth  in  her  defence,  in  every 
hour  of  danger,  when  many  were  deserting  her  cause, 
which  appeared  desperate.  I  have  often  bled  in  it ; 
the  marks  that  I  bear,  are  sufficient  evidence  of  my 
conduct.  The  impartial  public  will  judge  of  my 
services,  and  whether  the  returns  that  I  have  met  with 
are  not  tinctured  with  the  basest  ingratitude.  Con 
scious  of  my  own  innocence,  and  the  unworthy  methods 
taken  to  injure  me,  I  can  with  boldness  say  to  my 
persecutors  in  general,  and  to  the  chief  of  them  in  par 
ticular ',  that  in  the  hour  of  danger  when  the  affairs  of 
America  wore  a  gloomy  aspect,  when  our  illustrious 
general  was  retreating  through  New  Jersey,  with  a 
handful  of  men,  I  did  not  propose  to  my  associates 
basely  to  quit  the  general,  and  sacrifice  the  cause  of 
my  country  to  my  personal  safety,  by  going  over  to 
the  enemy  and  making  my  peace. 

"  I  can  say  I  never  basked  in  the  sunshine  of  my 
general's  favour,  and  courted  him  to  his  face,  when  I 
was  at  the  same  time  treating  him  with  the  greatest 


13 

disrespect,  and  villifying  his  character  when  absent. 
This  is  more  than  a  ruling  member  of  the  Council  of 
Pennsylvania  can  say"  as  it  is  alleged  and  believed. 

The  first  edition  of  the  Cadwalader  Pamphlet  was 
published  in  the  year  1782,  within  the  last  twenty 
years  all  the  copies,  or  nearly  so,  have  been  spirited 
away — where  or  by  whom  no  one  knows.  They  have 
been  stolen  from  the  public  libraries  and  from  the 
book  cases  of  private  individuals.  In  1848  a  second 
edition  was  issued.  The  publisher  of  this  edition  was 
threatened  with  prosecution,  and  although  but  six 
years  have  passed,  it  is  now  looked  upon  as  a  valuable 
curiosity.  To  the  second  edition  wras  prefixed  the 
following  Introduction. 

"  A  few  years  since  a  writer,  over  the  signature  of 
"  Valley  Forge,"  published  in  an  evening  paper  of 
Philadelphia,  called  the  "  Evening  Journal"  and  put 
forth  certain  statements  connected  with  our  revolu 
tionary  history,  which  caused  a  great  excitement,  and 
led  to  a  challenge  of  an  interview  with  the  author,  by 
the  descendants  of  a  person,  whose  character  was  con 
sidered  as  involved  in  doubt,  as  to  his  being  a  patriot 
of  1776.  The  party  challenged  failed  to  attend  the 
proposed  meeting,  and  this  pamphlet  will  give  a  clue 
to  the  whole  writings  of  "  Valley  Forge,"  and  justify 
completely  the  course  pursued  by  the  editor  of  the 

NOTES. — "  The  allusion  to  the  disrespectful  treatment  of  the  General 
refers  in  part, , (I  fancy)  to  the  letter  addressed  by  General  Charles  Lee  to 
Keed,  which  came  to  head  quarters  and  was  opened  by  Washington." — 
See  Life  of  Joseph  Reed. 

"  Joseph  Reed  at  the  time  of  the  prosecution  of  Arnold  was  President 
of  the  Supreme  Executive  Council  of  Pennsylvania,  and  as  is  well  known, 
took  an  active  and  prominent  part  against  him." — See  Spark's  Life  of 
Arnold,  page  140. 


14 

" Evening  Journal"  who  is  not  now  of  this  world,  and 
of  course  a  matter  immaterial  perhaps  to  his  friends 
and  relatives. 

The  letter  of  Major  Lennox  and  P.  Dickinson  refer 
to  a  person  whose  name  is  not  mentioned,  wrho  was  in 
cluded  in  the  application  to  Count  Donop  for  a  pro 
tection.  There  certainly  must  be  in  the  possession  of 
some  of  the  descendants  of  revolutionary  families, 
evidence  to  show  who  this  person  was :  and  it  may  yet 
be  produced,  to  do  justice  to  the  memory  of  the  men 
who  figured  in  those  times. 

Trenton,  December  26M,  1846. 

The  Valley  Forge  Letters  were  originally  published 
in  the  Evening  Journal,  edited  by  Reuben  Whitney, 
Esq.,  in  the  year  1842.  I  have  given  the  printer  the 
cuttings  from  that  paper,  so  that  the  reader  will  get 
them  in  the  exact  condition  in  which  they  appeared, 
perhaps  not  in  the  same  order. 


A     R  E  P  LY 


TO 


Genl.  JOSEPH  REED'S  Remarks 


ON"    A    LATE    PUBLICATION    IN    THE      ' 


INDEPENDENT    GAZETTEER; 


WITH    SOME    OBSERVATIONS    ON    HIS 

ADDRESS     TO     THE     PEOPLE    OF    PENNSYLVANIA 

By  General  John  Cadwalader. 

WITH    THE    LETTERS    OF 

Gen.  George  Washington,  Gen.  Alexander  Hamilton,  Major  David 

Lennox,  Dr.  Benjamin  Rush,  Gen.  P.  Dickinson, 

Gen.  Henry  Laurens  and  others. 


PHILADELPHIA : 

PRINTED    AND    SOLD    BY    T.    BRADFORD. 

In  Front  Street,  the  fourth  door  below  the  CofTee-House. 
1783. 


TO  THE  PUBLIC. 


WHEN  an  appeal  is  made  to  the  public  by  a  person  who  has  inter 
ested  himself  in  the  affairs  of  America  from  the  beginning  of  the 
present  revolution,  he  has  a  claim  to  their  attention,  with  respect  to 
transactions  that  reflect  either  upon  his  political  conduct  or  principles 
as  a  patriot. 

I  wish,  most  sincerely,  that  all  prejudices  in  favor  or  against 
General  Reed  or  myself,  may  be  laid  aside  on  the  present  occa 
sion,  and  that  truth  and  justice  may  influence  the  determination 
of  the  public. 

The  world  is  now  in  possession  of  General  Reed's  address  to  me, 
relating  to  a  conversation  I  had  with  him  at  Bristol,  in  the  winter  of 
1776,  and  as  it  contains  the  grossest  reflections  upon  my  character,  as 
a  man  of  veracity  and  a  patriot,  it  is  incumbent  on  me  to  reply. 

Mankind  have  been  much  the  same,  in  every  age,  with  respect  to 
their  conduct  in  political  life.  Their  minds  have  been  inflamed  by 
the  same  passions,  prejudices,  and  resentments,  and  parties  have  been 
supported  by  complaints  and  representations,  which  naturally  grow 
into  invective  and  personal  abuse. 

From  these  principles,  General  Reed  has  deduced  those  argu 
ments  and  conclusions,  which  he  vainly  affects  to  think  will  justify 
him  in  asserting,  that  my  conduct  has  been  influenced  by  motives  of 
hatred,  resentment,  and  disappointed  ambition.  But  when  it  shall 
appear,  from  the  testimony  I  have  inserted  in  the  following  sheets, 
that  the  conversation  alluded  to  was  spoken  of  by  me  in  confidence,  at 
a  time  when  he  asserts  that  all  former  personal  dislike  was  removed, 
and  that  "we  united  in  confidence  and  danger  at  the  battle  of  Mon- 
mouth  •"  at  a  time,  too,  when  he  admits,  that  «  no  party  or  preju 
dices  existed,  (at  least  as  to  him,")  the  premises  from  which  he  has 
drawn  his  conclusions  must  be  removed,  and  consequently  his  argu 
ments  fall  with  them. 

If  my  bare  affirmative  against  his  negative  was  the  only  foundation 
on  which  the  public  were  to  found  their  judgment,  our  several  charac 
ters,  in  the  article  of  veracity,  would  be  fairly  weighed  by  candor,  and 

2 


18 

a  verdict  given  in  favour  of  the  preponderating  scale.  If,  then,  I  had 
hazarded  an  assertion,  without  other  (the  most  respectable)  testimony 
to  support  it,  the  consciousness  of  my  own  integrity  would  have  sup 
pressed  any  fears  with  respect  to  the  public  opinion. 

The  many  and  hasty  movements  of  my  family  during  the  present 
contest,  have  displaced  several  valuable  papers  relating  to  property  as 
well  as  military  affairs.  I  do  not,  however,  despair  of  yet  finding 
important  ones  relating  to  this  matter,  that  may  some  time  hence  be 
published.  But  what  need  is  there  of  more  than  I  shall  here  adduce; 
since  every  prejudiced  mind  must  feel  (if  not  acknowledge)  the  testi 
mony  too  respectable  and  powerful  to  admit  of  apology  or  reply. 
Testimony,  too,  obtained,  (in  many  instances,)  from  persons  to  whom 
I  am  scarcely  known, — persons  residing  in  other  States,  who  cannot 
be  supposed  to  be  the  particular  enemies  of  General  Reed,  or  in  any 
way  connected  with  the  politics  of  Pennsylvania. 

Many  other  certificates,  supporting  and  confirming  those  I  shall 
here  offer  to  the  public  are  omitted,  as  it  is  thought  they  will  swell 
the  publication  to  an  unnecessary  size  ;  and  affidavits  may,  if  required, 
be  obtained  to  all  the  certificates  which  appear  in  this  pamphlet. 


As  the  publication  signed  "  Brutus,"  addressed  to  General  Reed, 
containing  certain  queries,  is  referred  to,  it  is  thought  necessary  to 
reprint  it. 

To  the  Printer  of  the  Independent  Gazetteer. 

SIR, — It  is  much  to  the  honor  of  America,  that  in  the  present 
revolution,  there  have  not  been  many  instances  of  defection  among 
officers  of  rank  in  the  Continental  army.  In  Oliver  Cromwell's  time, 
we  frequently  see  a  general  fighting  one  day  for  the  King,  another  for 
the  Parliament ;  so  unstable  and  wavering  were  the  opinions  of  those 
republicans. 

The  corruption  of  the  times  is  now  become  a  universal  complaint, 
and  one  would  be  almost  tempted  to  believe,  that  the  former  days 
were  better  than  these  ;  that  our  forefathers  were  possessed  of  greater 
moral  rectitude  than  the  present  generation,  did  not  history  and 
experience  convince  us  of  the  contrary.  There  is,  however,  one 
great  evil  peculiar  to  this  age — that  of  assuming  the  credit  of  being 
endowed  with  virtues  to  which  we  are  perfect  strangers.  Cunning, 
address,  and  eloquence,  have  often  misled  the  honest  but  too  credu 
lous  multitude,  and  they  have  been  taught  to  consider  many  a  man 
as  a  patriot  and  a  hero,  whose  realcharacter  was  marked  with  nothing 
but  deceit  and  treachery  to  his  country.  It  is  also  amazing,  that  such 
men  should  meet  with  the  highest  success,  and  bear  their  blushing 


10 

honors  thick  upon  them,  whilst  modest  merit  and  true  patriotism 
could  neither  gain  tho  suffrages  of  the  people,  nor  the  approbation  of 
those  who  held  the  reins  of  government. 

The  reflections  I  am  now  making  have,  in  a  striking  manner,  been 
verified  in  this  State.  I  should  be  extremely  sorry  to  accuse  without 
a  just  foundation,  or  to  adduce  a  charge,  were  I  not  convinced  that  it 
is  of  the  utmost  importance  that  the  public, — the  people  at  large — 
should  be  enabled  to  form  a  right  opinion  of  such  men,  who  have  been 
honoured,  or  may  be  honoured  with  their  suffrages,  arid  thereby  exalted 
to  places  of  the  highest  trust  and  confidence. 

Impressed  with  this  idea,  and  with  a  design  to  elucidate  such 
characters,  I  shall  take  the  liberty  to  propose  to  the  public  the  fol 
lowing  queries : 

1.  Was  not  General  R — d,  in  December,  1776,    (then   A 1 

G 1  of  the  Continental  army,)  sent  by  General  Washington  to 

the  commanding  officer  at  Bristol,  with  orders  relative  to  a  general 
attack  intended  to  be  made  on  the  enemy's  post  at  Trenton,  and  those 
below,  on  the  25th,  at  night  ? 

2.  Two  or  three  days  before  the  intended  attack,  did  not  General 
R — d  say,  in  conversation  with  the  said  commanding  officer  at  his 
quarters,  that  our  affairs  looked  very  desperate,  and  that  we  were  only 
making  a  sacrifice  of  ourselves  ? 

3.  Did  he  not  also  say,  that  the  time  of  General  Howe's  proclama 
tion,  offering  pardon  and  protection  to  persons  who   should  come  in 
before  the  1st  of  January,  1777,  was  nearly  expired,  and  that  Gallo 
way,  the  Aliens,  and  others,  had  gone  over,  and  availed   themselves 
of  the  pardon  and  protection  offered  by  the  said  proclamation  ? 

4.  Did  not  he,  General  R — d,  at  the  same  time  say,  that  he  had 
a  family,  and  ought  to  take  care  of  them  ;  and  that  he  did  not  under 
stand  following  the  wretched  remains  of  a  broken  army  ? 

5.  Did  he  not  likewise  say  to  the  said  commanding  officer,  that  his 
brother,  (then  a  colonel  or  lieutenant-colonel  of  militia,)  was  at  Bur 
lington  with  his  family,  and  that  he  had  advised  him  to  remain  there, 
and  if  the  enemy  took  possession  of  the  town,  to  take  a  protection 
and  swear  allegiance? 

It  is  well  for  America,  that  very  few  general  officers  have  reasoned 
in  this  manner;  if  they  had,  General  Howe  would  have  made  an 
easy  conquest  of  the  United  States.  And  it  is  very  obvious,  that 
officers  of  high  rank,  with  such  sentiments,  can  have  no  just  preten 
sions  to  patriotism  or  public  virtue,  and  can  by  no  means  be  worthy 
of  any  post  of  honour  or  place  of  trust,  where  the  liberties  and  interest 
of  the  people  are  immediately  concerned. 

BRUTUS. 

PUladdpliia,  September  3,  1782. 


20 


TO  GENERAL  JOSEPH  REED. 

In  the  first  part  of  your  late  publication,  which  is  no  less  an  invec 
tive  against  me,  than  it  is  a  defence  of  yourself,  you  have,  with 
sufficient  art,  insisted  on  my  remarkably  contentious,  factious,*  and 
jealous  spirit,  which  suffers  no  man,  undisturbed,  to  enjoy  his  well- 
earned  fame ;  a  circumstance  in  my  character  you  expected  to  derive 
considerable  benefit  from  in  the  controversy  between  us.  For  this 
point  being  once  gained,  every  suggestion,  every  article  of  .charge 
against  you,  which  has  its  foundation  and  support  in  me,  would 
naturally  be  referred  to  those  fierce  and  malignant  passions  you  have 
so  unsparingly  bestowed  on  me,  and  no  longer  rest  upon  the  general 
credit  and  reputation  I  trust  I  have  acquired  and  maintained.  But 
as  I  cannot,  without  injustice  to  myself,  make  this  concession  to  you, 
I  must  declare  my  general  tenor  of  conduct  to  have  been  far  other 
wise, — that  in  my  private  life  I  have  been  at  peace  and  harmony 
with  all  mankind  ;  and  in  my  public,  at  enmity  only  with  such  public 
men  as  have  disgraced  their  country  by  their  vices  or  injured  it  by 
their  crimes. 

Wherein  until  the  present,  except  in  a  single  instance,  have  I  drawn 
the  public  attention  by  attacks  upon  the  character  of  any  man  ?  and 
that  instance,  an  impostor,  like  yourself,  who  had  got  into  a  seat  of 
honor.  In  this,  it  was  virtue  to  become  his  accuser. 

If  you  rely  upon  your  instance,  as  affording  a  proof  of  my  eager 
ness  for  controversy,  it  will  not  answer  your  purpose.  I  have  not 
brought  you  to  the  public  bar  ;  for,  whatever  was  the  amount  of  your 
offences,  I  neither  urged  nor  wished  a  public  inquiry  ;  another  has 
brought  you  there,  and  I  appear  only  as  a  witness  against  you,  chal 
lenged  and  defied  by  yourself. 

This  being  premised,  I  shall  enter  upon  my  subject,  and  reply  to 
such  parts  of  your  pamphlet  as  respect  me,  and  therefore  specially 
concern  me  to  notice. 

Your  remarks,  you  say,  are  with  propriety  addressed  to  me ;  because 
though  not  the  actual  author,  it  is  to  me  you  are  really  indebted  for 
the  insidious  attempt  on  your  reputation. 

That  the  public  may  have  the  most  authentic  proofs  of  the  manner 
in  which  I  have  been  involved  in  this  controversy,  I  think  it  neces 
sary  here  to  insert  the  original  letters  that  passed  in  the  course  of 
our  correspondence,  last  fall,  on  this  subject. 

#  Here  the  following  anecdote  will  afford  an  occasion  of  recriminating.  When 
Mr.  Reed  was  proposed  as  a  Brigadier  in  the  army,  Mr.  John  Adams,  now  our 
minister  in  Holland,  openly  objected,  in  Congress,  to  his  appointment,  saying  he 
was  of  a  factious  spirit,  and  had  been  notoriously  instrumental  in  fomenting  discords 
between  the  troops  of  the  different  States. 


21 

SIR, — I  have,  for  a  long  time,  treated  the  anonymous  abuse  which 
disgraces  our  public  papers  with  the  contempt  it  deserves.  But  in 
Oswald's  paper,  of  last  Saturday,  are  a  set  of  queries,  signed  Brutus, 
in  which  the  author,  not  daring  to  make  an  open  assertion,  has  insin 
uated,  that  in  1776  I  meditated  a  desertion  to  the  enemy.  Though 
iny  soul  rises  with  indignation  at  the  infamous  slander,  I  should  treat 
it  with  scorn,  if  it  did  not  seem  to  deserve  some  credit  from  a 
reference  to  you.  Prejudiced,  as  I  know  you  are,  I  should  be  sorry 
to  suppose  you  capable  of  propagating  such  a  sentiment,  or  decline 
the  opportunity  of  doing  justice  to  my  character,  and  in  some  degree 
your  own.  And  this  for  two  reasons :  first,  the  gross  falsehood  of 
the  insinuation ;  and,  secondly,  to  preserve  a  consistency  in  your  own 
character,  which  must  suffer  from  your  placing  such  confidence  in  me, 
with  respect  to  the  military  operations  of  that  period,  and  permitting 
General  Washington  to  do  the  same,  after  such  a  conversation  as 
these  queries  suppose.  I  need  make  no  apology,  in  this  case,  for 
requesting  an  immediate  answer, — and  am,  sir, 

Your  obedient  humble  servant, 

JOSEPH  HEED. 

Market  Street,  Sept.  9,  1782. 
Gen.  Cadwalader. 

SIR, — In  answer  to  your  letter,  which  I  received  last  evening  by 
Mr.  Ingersoll,  relating  to  queries  published  in  Mr.  Oswald's  paper  of 
last  Saturday,  signed  Brutus,  I  can  assure  you,  (as  I  did  Mr.  Inger 
soll,)  that  I  am  not  the  author  of  that  publication;  nor  have  I  pub 
lished  one  single  word,  since  I  came  from  Maryland,  relating  to  the 
politics  of  this  state;  yet  my  character  has,  unprovoked,  been  tra 
duced  by  you,  or  some  of  your  friends.  But,  sir,  I  have  repeatedly 
mentioned  the  substance  of  those  queries  to  individuals  immediately 
after  the  conversation  alluded  to  happened ;  and  since  that  time  in 
many  mixed  companies.  As  charges  of  the  same  nature  had  some 
time  since  been  made  against  you,  to  which  you  never  made  a  reply, 
the  world  very  justly  concluded  they  were  true;  especially  as  the 
rank  and  character  of  the  person  who  made  the  charge  (at  that  time) 
merited  your  notice.  From  this  circumstance,  it  occasioned  an  addi 
tional  surprise,  that  you  should,  in  this  instance,  undertake  to 
investigate  the  matter,  and  declare  in  your  letter  to  me,  that  the 
"  insinuation"  was  "  a  gross  falsehood/'  I  therefore  now  assert,  that 
in  a  conversation  with  you  at  the  time  and  place  mentioned  in  the 
above  publication,  signed  Brutus,  that  you  expressed  the  substance, 
and  I  think  the  very  words,  contained  in  the  queries.  If  my  charac 
ter  for  veracity  wanted  credit  with  the  world,  one  or  two  other 
gentlemen  could  be  named,  who,  at  nearly  the  same  time,  heard 


22 

expressions  from  you,  which  created  in  them  sentiments  unfavourable 
to  your  character.  You  seem  to  insinuate  that  there  is  an  incon 
sistency  in  my  conduct,  because  I  afterwards  reposed  a  confidence  in 
you,  and  because  I  permitted  General  Washington  to  do  the  same. 
It  would  have  been  very  dangerous,  at  that  critical  period,  to  have 
exposed  your  weakness  and  timidity  to  the  militia,  as  such  an 
example  might  have  been  attended  with  the  most  fatal  consequences 
to  our  cause.  And  as  your  conduct,  upon  this  occasion,  appeared  to 
me  to  proceed  from  want  of  fortitude,  and  not  the  baser  motives, — 
and  as  from  the  observations  I  made  to  you  at  the  time,  you  seemed 
to  resume  more  spirited  sentiments  in  conversation,  as  well  as  from 
political  motives,  I  continued  to  show  an  appearance  of  confidence, 
and  concluded  it  best  not  to  mention  it  to  the  General.  The  suc 
cesses  that  soon  followed  gave  a  happy  turn  to  our  affairs,  and  thus, 
you,  (with  many  others,)  appeared  to  possess  firmness  in  prosperity 
who  had  shown  a  want  of  it  in  times  of  imminent  danger. 

If  your  conduct  in  civil  life  had  been  such  as  could  have  been 
approved  of,  former  transactions  might  have  been  buried  in  oblivion. 
But  when  I  see  a  man  endeavouring  to  injure  the  reputation  of  those, 
whose  principles  and  conduct,  from  the  beginning  of  the  contest,  have 
been  uniformly  exerted  to  obtain  those  ends  intended  by  the  revolu 
tion  ;  and  when  he  denies  all  merit  to  those  who  are  not  equally 
violent  with  himself,  it  is  difficult  to  be  silent. 

I  am,  sir,  your  obedient  servant, 

Philadelphia,  10th  Sept.,  1782.          JOHN  CADWALADER. 
General  Reed. 

Philadelphia,  Sept  10,  1782. 

SIR, — After  waiting  some  time,  and  being  just  about  to  set  off  for 
Bucks,  I  received  your  letter  of  this  morning,  and  am  at  a  loss  which 
to  admire  most,  the  depravity  of  your  heart,  or  the  weakness  of  your 
understanding.  Your  quoting  General  Arnold's  testimony  to  vindi 
cate  your  own  falsehood  is  perfectly  consistent.  You  shall  hear 
further  from  me  on  my  return  from  Bucks.  In  the  mean  time,  I 
have  made  inquiry  of  Messrs.  T.  Smith  and  Shippen,  whom  you 
mentioned  to  Mr.  Ingersoll  as  hearing  from  you  sentiments  similar  to 
those  in  the  queries,  with  a  view  of  communicating  them  to  me; 
which  they  never  did,  because  they  deny  the  least  recollection  of  any 
such  information;  which  must  have  been  too  strking  to  them,  and 
interesting  to  me,  to  have  passed  unnoticed.  Your  talent  for  inven 
tion  is  also  displayed  on  this  occasion  most  probably. 

Whatever  you  may  suppose,  several  of  my  friends  well  know,  that 
I  have  been  anxious  to  trace  some  loose  reports  that  I  had  heard, 


23 

•which  your  residence  in  Maryland,  and  the  improbability  of  your  say 
ing  such  things,  had  induced  me  to  neglect. 

As  to  your  insinuation  of  my  writing  against  you  in  the  news 
papers,  or  its  being  done  with  m-y  privity,  it  is  equally  groundless 
with  all  the  rest.  I  have  not  wrote  in  the  newspapers  for  a  long 
time,  nor  at  any  time  in  my  life  respecting  you. 

I  am,  sir,  your  very  humble  servant, 

General  Cadwalader.  JOSEPH  REED. 

.    To  General  Reed. 

SIR, — I  shall  make  no  reply,  at  this  time,  to  the  expressions  con 
tained  in  your  letter  of  the  10th  inst.  ;  but  as  you  inform  me  that 
you  are  ou  the  point  of  setting  off  for  Bucks,  I  do  not  think  it  incum 
bent  on  me  to  remain  here  until  you  return,  especially  as  I  informed 
Mr.  Ingersoll,  that  I  intended  leaving  town  as  soon  as  the  dust  was 
laid,  and  wished  you  to  take  your  measures  as  soon  as  possible,  as  I 
should  make  my  arrangements  accordingly.  Some  of  my  servants 
are  gone,  and  I  have  every  thing  packed  up ;  it  will,  therefore,  be 
very  inconvenient  to  detain  my  family,  as  you  do  not  mention  when 
you  purpose  returning.  As  you  say  I  shall  hear  from  you  on  your 
return  from  Bucks,  I  must  inform  you,  that  the  post  leaves  this  city 
for  the  Eastern  Shore  every  Wednesday,  at  three  o'clock  ;  be  pleased 
to  direct  to  me,  in  Kent  County,  Maryland,  to  be  left  at  Stewart's. 
You  shall  have  my  answer  by  the  return  of  the  post,  or  if  necessary, 
I  shall  attend  in  person  for  further  investigation. 

I  am,  sir,  your  obedient  servant, 

Philadelphia,  12th  Sept.,  1782.          JOHN  CADWALADER. 

SIR, — Mr.  Clymer  delivered  me  your  letter  of  the  12th  instant. 
Your  sudden  departure  from  this  city  was  indeed  unexpected, — your 
declaration  to  Mr.  Ingersoll  not  implying  it  to  be  so  very  soon  ;*  and 

*  When  Mr.  Ingersoll  waited  on  me  with  General  Reed's  first  letter,  9th  of 
September  last,  I  mentioned  to  him  the  situation  of  my  family,  and  the  necessity 
of  my  leaving  the  city.  This  has  been  candidly  related  by  Mr.  Ingersoll  to  Mr. 
Reed,  as  appears  by  the  following  extract  from  his  letter,  in  answer  to  mine  on  the 
17th  of  March,  on  this  subject. 

Extract  from  Mr.  Inr/ersoll's  letter,  dated  PJiiladelphia,  8th  MarcTi,  1783. 

"  The  conversation  that  passed,  I  reported  with  candour,  and  I  believe  with 
precision,  but  still  supposed,  that  the  reply  from  General  Reed  would  be  founded 
entirely  upon  your  answer.  Your  declaration,  with  respect  to  your  intention  of 
leaving  town,  I  think  I  can  repeat  in  nearly  the  words  in  which  you  expressed 
yourself. 

"  After  discoursing  upon  the  subject  of  the  letter  I  had  put  into  your  hands, 
you  mentioned  to  me  that  your  furniture  was  packed  up  to  go  to  Maryland  :  that 


24 

I  should  have  supposed  that  my  letter  of  the  10th,  would  have  some 
weight  to  protract  your  journey.  Before  I  received  yours  of  the  10th, 
I  had  prepared  a  small  publication,  which  the  receipt  of  your  letter 
did  not  influence  me  to  alter  or  delay  ;  as  no  signature  could  change  the 
nature  of  things,  and  make  falsehood  truth,  or  truth  falsehood.  Hav 
ing  there  declared  the  insinuation  in  Oswald's  paper  of  the  7th  instant 
to  be  false,  I  now  apply  the  same  epithet  to  your  avowal  of  them ; 
and  am  sorry,  though  not  surprised,  that  your  violence  of  temper 
should  have  occasioned  such  a  deviation  from  the  line  of  veracity  so 
essential  to  the  character  of  a  gentleman. 

I  ana  already  possessed  of  sundry  authentic  documents;  a  few  days 
will  complete  them, — not  to  show  my  innocence, — the  improbability 
of  your  charge,  and  inconsistency  of  your  own  conduct,  making  that 
unnecessary;  but  to  show  to  what  lengths  a  rancorous  heart,  puffed 
up  by  sudden  and  accidental  wealth,  can  push  a  man  of  weak  judg 
ment  and  ungovernable  passions. 

I  need  not  give  you  my  address,  though  I  think  it  incumbent  on 
me  to  assure  you,  that  if  by  investigation  you  mean  a  personal  inter 
view,  I  will  endeavour  to  make  it  as  convenient  as  possible,  and  will 
shorten  the  distance  between  us. 

I  am,  sir,  your  obedient  humble  servant, 
Philadelphia,  28d  Sept.,  1782.  JOSEPH  REED. 

General  Gadwalader. 

Maryland,  30tfi  September,  1782. 

SIR, — I  received  yours  of  the  23d  inst.  by  the  post.  From  the 
style  of  your  first  letter,  (9th  Sept.)  in  which  you  required  an  "imme 
diate  answer,"  I  fully  expected  an  immediate  interview.  As  you 
declined  the  interview  I  proposed  through  Mr.  Ingersoll,  and  left 
town  the  next  morning,  without  saying  when  you  proposed  returning, 
and  having  determined  not  to  "alter  or  delay"  the  "small  publica 
tion/'  which  you  "  had  prepared  before  the  receipt  of  my  first  letter," 
— I  am  at  a  loss  to  know  what  could  have  occasioned  your  surprise 
at  my  departure,  before  your  return  from  Bucks.  After  having  pro 
mised  to  the  public  the  most  satisfactory  proofs,  that  no  such  conver 
sation  as  alluded  to  in  the  queries  ever  passed,  it  was  reasonable  to 
allow  you  some  time  to  prepare  your  "  authentic  document."  Your 
last  letter  (23d  Sept )  informs  that  they  were  not  then  completed. 
And  could  you  reasonably  expect  that  I  should  have  remained  in 

you  had  been  waiting  for  rain  to  lay  the  dust,  and  that  if  anything  was  to  come  of 
this  business,  it  must  be  speedily. 

"  I  ENDEAVOUII  to  give  the  words  used, — I  certainly  do  not  deviate  from  the  pur 
port  of  what  was  said." 

This  is  not  the  least  of  the  many  misrepresentations  in  which  Mr.  Reed  is  con 
victed  in  the  course  of  my  reply. 


25 

town  till  this  is  completed  ?  or  could  you  suppose  I  would  suffer  your 
publication,  worked  up,  as  it  no  doubt  will  be,  with  all  the  cunning 
and  misrepresentation  you  are  master  of,  to  pass  unanswered  ?  As 
you  have  protracted  this  affair  by  your  engagement  to  the  public,  I 
shall  not  put  it  in  the  power  of  accident  to  deprive  me  of  the  oppor 
tunity  of  laying  the  facts  I  am  possessed  of  open  to  public  view.  The 
question  will  then  be,  whether  what  I  have  avowed  is  true?  My 
wealth,  judgment,  or  passions,  can  have  no  influence,  either  way,  with 
impartial  men.  My  own  character,  the  character  of  others  concerned, 
and  all  the  circumstances  combined,  will  determine  the  judgment  of 
the  public.  This  business  being  ended,  an  interview  may  reasonably 
be  expected. 

I  am,  sir,  your  humble  servant, 
Gen.  Reed,  Philadelphia.  JOHN   CADWALADER. 

Having  for  several  years  given  over  every  expectation  of  seeing 
those  changes  made  in  the  constitution  of  Pennsylvania,  which  I  have 
ever  thought  necessary  to  secure  that  happiness  and  liberty  intended 
by  the  revolution,  I  retired,  and  have  never  since  even  expressed  my 
sentiments  concerning  the  politics  of  this  state,  except  among  my  par 
ticular  friends.  Your  vexatious  administration  hath  furnished  an 
example,  to  what  a  dangerous  length  the  authority  of  government 
may  be  carried  under  such  a  constitution. 

The  particular  circumstances  of  my  family  made  it  necessary  to 
spend  a  few  months  in  this  city,  last  summer,  without  an  intention  of 
taking  up  my  residence  here  till  the  conclusion  of  the  war;  and  though 
I  never  interfered  in  politics  here,  except  among  my  particulr  friends, 
I  was  attacked,  in  the  public  papers,  by  a  party  blindly  devoted  to 
you  and  your  measures;  I  made  no  reply,  from  a  confidence  that  such 
intimations  could  not  injure  me  with  those  whose  good  opinion  I 
regarded.  But  whether  a  friend  published  the  piece  signed  Brutus, 
in  the  mere  spirit  of  retaliation,  or  whether  it  was  calculated  for 
political  purposes,  at  the  last  election,  let  the  author  determine.  The 
conversation,  alluded  to  in  the  queries,  was  known  to  many  long 
before  that  period ;  among  whom  were  some  of  your  friends,  in  proof 
of  which  I  offer  Mr.  Prior's  certificate.* 

*  Being  called  upon  by  General  Cadwalader  to  recollect  the  conversation  we  had 
at  the  Coffee-House,  in  the  fall  of  the  year  seventy-eight,  when  he  related  what  had 
passed  between  him  and  Mr.  Heed  at  Bristol,  I  remember  the  subject  corroborates 
with  those  queries  I  have  since  seen  published  in  Mr.  Oswald's  paper,  of  the  7th  of 
September,  1782.  I  likewise  remember  giving  him  a  hint,  that  some  of  Mr.  Breed's 
friends  were  present,  on  which  he  repeated  what  he  had  related  before,  and  then 
addressed  himself  to  the  gentlemen,  and  informed  them,  if  any  of  Mr.  Breed's 
friends  were  present,  they  were  at  liberty  to  make  what  use  they  pleased  of  it. 

THOMAS  PRYOR. 
Philadelphia,  March  8,  1783. 


26 


Haying  mentioned  the  conversation  jn*5&d^,  those  who  heard  it  were 
certainly  at  liberty  to  make  what  use  of  it  they  saw  proper. 

Being  entrusted  with  the  command  of  the  militia  and  a  New  Eng 
land  brigade,  which  lay  at  Bristol  in  December,  1776,  I  had  permis 
sion  from  the  Commander-in-chief  to  make  an  attack  on  the  enemy, 
whenever  I  thought  it  could  be  done  with  success;  I  was  prepared  on 
the  evening  of  the  22d  December,  to  attempt  the  enemy's  post,  above 
the  Black  Horse,  with  seven  hundred  men;  and  about  nine  or  ten 
o'clock,  P.  M.,  I  received  a  letter  from  the  general,  requesting,  if  the 
enterprise  was  not  too  far  advanced,  to  lay  it  aside,  as  he  intended  a 
general  attack  on  the  enemy's  posts  in  a  few  days.  From  this  cir 
cumstance,  it  appears,  that  the  general  gave  me  the  information 
relating  to  the  intended  attack,  the  evening  before  you  received  his 
letter  of  the  23d  December,  in  which  the  precise  time  was  fixed.  As 
he  knew  my  intention  to  command  the  party  myself,  and  therefore  I 
might  not  be  at  Bristol  the  next  day,  this  will  account  for  his  letter, 
of  the  23d  being  directed  to  you.  But  here  you  mean  to  convey  an 
idea  that  a  preference  in  this  communication  was  intended  to  you, 
though  he  had  given  me,  in  effect,  the  same  information  the  evening 
before.  This,  too,  you  adduce  as  a  proof  of  the  general's  "unbounded 
confidence  in  you,"  and  you  say  you  were  sent  by  General  Washing 
ton  for  the  '''express  purpose  of  assisting  me;"  and  "  whatever  my 
abilities  were,  that  I  had  less  experience  of  actual  service  than  you 
had,  —  that  you  were  received  with  cool  civility,  and  very  few  marks 
of  private  attention;"  though  you  acknowledge  that  I,  at  the  same 
time,  consulted  you  without  reserve  on  our  "military  affairs."  I  will 
admit,  that  your  opportunities  of  acquiring  experience  were  greater 
than  mine;  and  considering  the  extensive  command  I  then  had,  (which 
was  in  number  nearly  equal  to  the  force  under  the  immediate  command 
of  General  Washington,)  I  should  have  thought  it  no  reflection  on  my 
abilities;  nor  would  it  have  hurt  my  feelings,  if  an  officer  of  superior 
abilities  and  rank  had  been  sent  to  take  the  command,  —  or  even  an 
inferior  officer  to  assist  me.  But  whether  your  appointment  was  of 
the  mere  motion  of  the  commander-in-chief,  or  at  your  instance,  (for 
assisting  me  or  other  -purposes,)  may  at  least  become  a  question. 

That  I  received  you  "  with  cool  civility,  and  very  few  marks  of 
private  attention,"  I  do  not  remember;  but  to  give  what  you  mean 
to  convey  its  full  force,  I  will  not  hesitate  to  acknowledge  it  in  its 
fullest  extent;  as  you  have  granted,  that  I  consulted  "  without 
reserve  on  our  military  affairs."  In  this  instance,  the  world  will  do 
me  justice,  as  it  appears  that  I  did  not  suffer  personal  dislike  to 
interfere  with  public  duty. 

Though  the  world  have  little  to  do  with  the  causes  of  private  ani 
mosities,  I  shall  think  myself  perfectly  excusable,  here  to  say  a  few 


27 

words  on  this  subject,  as  you  have  assigned  causes  for  the  interruption 
of  our  intimacy  different  from  the  true  ones,  and  with  a  view  of 
creating  prejudices  against  me. 

I  acknowledge  that  such  intimacy  subsisted  between  us  in  early 
life,  and  you  malignantly  date  its  "  dissolution"  at  the  time  of  my 
pudden  accession  of  fortune  as  owing  thereto.  If  I  were  to  admit, 
that  you  could  properly  date  this  breach  from  the  moment  you  men 
tion,  I  flatter  myself,  you  would  find  it  very  difficult  to  persuade 
those  who  know  me,  to  believe  that  to  be  the  true  cause.  But  this 
was  really  not  the  fact.  The  unworthy  measures  you  took  to  evade 
the  payment,  (till  compelled  by  a  judgment  of  the  court,)  of  Mr. 
Porter's  order  on  you  in  favor  of  my  brother  and  myself,  which  you 
had  accepted,  (to  be  paid  out  of  a  bond  assigned  by  said  Porter  to 
you  in  trust,)  was  the  true  motive  of  that  dissolution  you  complain 
of.  If  you  turn  to  the  records  of  the  court,  or  review  the  corres 
pondence  with  my  brother  on  that  subject,  you  must  blush  at  such  a 
subterfuge.  From  that  time,  and  owing  thereto,  I  avoided  your  com 
pany.  I  could  here  make  the  proper  reflections,  with  respect  to  your 
veracity  and  integrity,  but  the  world  will  do  you  justice. 

The  critical  situation  of  our  affairs,  in  the  winter  of  1776,  is  well 
known  to  every  inhabitant  of  the  United  States  ;  but  those  only  who 
were  at  that  time  in  the  field,  can  have  a  true  idea  of  the  circum 
stances  which  often  threatened  the  dissolution  of  the  militia.  My 
situation  gave  me  better  opportunities  of  knowing  the  feelings  and 
temper  of  both  officers  and  privates,  than  any  other  person  j  and  the 
happy  expedients  used  on  several  occasions,  to  prevent  their  going 
home  in  a  body,  are  well  known  to  many  officers  whom  I  then  had 
the  honour  to  command. 

The  first  intimation  we  had  of  the  capture  of  General  Lee,  was 
received  by  a  flag  which  arrived  at  my  quarters.  To  determine 
whether  this  was  a  misfortune,  or  an  advantage  to  the  cause  of 
America,  is  at  this  time  immaterial.  It  was  then,  however,  gene 
rally  thought  a  matter  of  great  magnitude,  in  the  British  as  well  as 
in  the  American  camp.  The  effect  it  had  on  our  army  is  well 
remembered  by  those  who  were  present,  but  particularly  on  the 
militia. 

That  men  attached  to  a  cause  upon  principle,  should  persevere  in 
a  prosperous  situation  of  affairs,  is  not  uncommon.  We  were  at  that 
time  separated  from  our  enemies  only  by  a  river,  which  we  expected 
every  day  might  be  passable  on  the  ice, — greatly  inferior  in  number 
and  discipline,  and  almost  destitute  of  everything  necessary  even  for 
defence.  Add  to  this,  a  proclamation  of  General  Howe,  offering 
pardon  and  protection  to  those  who  should  submit  and  swear  allegi 
ance  before  the  first  of  January,  1777,  and  this  time  nearly  expired. 


28 

I  say,  under  such  circumstances,  it  would  be  wonderful  indeed,  if  no 
officer  of  the  army  sunk  under  the  apprehension  of  those  dangers  that 
threatened  him.  That  there  were  more  than  yourself,  I  well  know, 
whose  expressions  discovered  a  timidity  unworthy  an  officer  and  a 
patriot,  who,  notwithstanding,  from  the  well-timed  and  spirited 
remonstrances  of  their  friends,  were  induced  to  assume  a  firmer  tone 
of  behaviour,  and  have  since  rendered  their  country  considerable 
services. 

Having  fully  stated  the  temper  of  men's  minds  at  this  alarming 
period,  and  the  situation  of  public  affairs,  I  shall  now  recite  the  con 
versation  and  circumstances  relating  thereto,  which  I  have  avowed  in 
my  letter  to  you  of  the  10th  September,  as  having  passed  between  us 
at  Bristol. 

I  had  occasion  to  speak  with  you  a  few  days  before  the  intended 
attack  on  the  26th  December,  177<3,  and  requested  you  to  retire  with 
me  to  a  private  room  at  my  quarters;  the  business  related  to  intelli 
gence  ;  a  general  conversation,  however,  soon  took  place,  concerning 
the  state  of  public  affairs ;  arid  after  running  ever  a  number  of 
topics, — in  an  agony  of  mind,  and  despair  strongly  expressed  in  your 
countenance  and  tone  of  voice,  you  spoke  your  apprehensions  con 
cerning  the  event  of  the  contest, — that  our  affairs  looked  very  des 
perate,  and  we  were  only  making  a  sacrifice  of  ourselves ;  that  the 
time  of  General  Howe's  offering  pardon  and  protection  to  persons 
who  should  come  in  before  the  first  of  January,  1777,  was  nearly 
expired ;  and  that  Galloway,  the  Aliens,  and  others,  had  gone  over, 
and  availed  themselves  of  that  pardon  and  protection,  offered  by  the 
said  proclamation;  that  you  had  a  family,  and  ought  to  take  care  of 
them,  and  that  you  did  not  understand  following  the  wretched 
remains  (or  remnants)  of  a  broken  army;  that  your  brother  (then  a 
colonel  or  lieutenant-colonel  of  militia,  —  but  you  say  of  the  five 
months'  men,  which  is  not  material,)  was  then  at  Burlington,  with 
his  family ;  and  that  you  had  advised  him  to  remain  there,  and  if 
the  enemy  took  possession  of  the  town,  to  take  a  protection  and  swear 
allegiance  ;  and  in  so  doing  he  would  be  perfectly  justifiable. 

This  was  the  substance,  and  I  think  nearly  the  very  words  ;  but 
that  "you  did  not  understand  following  the  wretched  remains  (or 
remnants)  of  a  broken  army"  I  perfectly  remember  to  be  the  very 
words  you  expressed. 

That  our  situation  was  critical,  and  the  dangers  that  threatened  us 
great,  were  universally  acknowledged  ;  but  I  was  astonished  to  hear 
such  expressions  from  the  Adjutant- General  of  the  army,  as  your 
conduct  had  been  approved  of  by  report ;  for  your  good  behaviour 
was  not  personally  known  to  me.  Judging  from  appearances,  and 
from  all  circumstances  at  the  time,  I  imputed  these  sentiments  solely 


29 

to  timidity ;  and  therefore,  to  rouse  your  feelings,  and  give  new  vigor 
to  a  mind  weakened  by  fear,  I  recalled  to  your  memory  your  former 
public  professions  and  conduct,  and  endeavoured  to  paint,  in  the 
strongest  colours,  the  fatal  consequences,  that  would  ensue  from  such 
an  example,  particularly  to  the  militia;  that  if  officers,  (more  espe 
cially  one  in  your  station,)  discovered  a  want  of  firmness,  we  could 
not  reasonably  expect  private  soldiers  to  remain  in  the  field ;  and 
added,  that  as  I  was  commanding  officer  there,  I  should  not  pass  over 
such  expressions  in  future ;  appearing  to  be  invigorated  by  these 
remonstrances,  your  subsequent  conversation  induced  me  to  hope  from 
you  a  more  honourable  resolution.  The  immediate  turn  in  our  affairs 
confirmed  this  hope.  I  had,  besides,  at  the  moment,  a  still  stronger 
dissuasive.  I  foresaw  that  an  "  arrest,"  or  discovery,  on  my  part, 
would  produce  all  the  bad  effects  naturally  to  be  apprehended  from 
actual  desertion ;  I  mean  with  respect  to  the  discouragement  which 
such  an  example  would  have  caused  in  the  army,  but  particularly  in 
the  militia ;  and  especially,  as  at  that  time  the  militia  were  assem 
bling  at  Philadelphia,  under  General  Putnam,  from  every  part  of  the 
country,  influenced  by  the  example  of  the  city  troops,  as  well  as  by  a 
sense  of  danger  and  duty.  If,  then,  the  city  militia  had  disbanded, 
no  person  can  hesitate  to  determine  what  would  have  been  the  fate  of 
those  from  the  country. 

The  reasons  of  my  concealing  it  from  the  General  were,  that  nothing 
but  an  arrest,  on  his  part,  could  have  prevented  the  execution  of  this 
plan  of  desertion,  and  the  bad  consequences  ensuing  from  it,  the 
betraying  of  secrets;  and  such  arrest  would  have  wrought  the  other 
ill  consequences  I  have  spoken  of.  In  this  dilemma,  I  used  a  dis 
cretion  which  I  considered  most  advantageous  to  my  country;  and 
trusted  to  my  hopes,  that  so  important  an  event,  as  your  defection, 
would  not  happen,  and  thus  avoid  the  immediate  and  certain  EVIL. 
And  besides,  I  have,  in  every  stage  of  the  war,  shown  a  disposition 
to  overlook  political  weaknesses,  conceiving  that  every  man  we  could 
retain  in  the  service  an  acquisition,  tending  to  draw  forth  the  whole 
strength  and  abilities  of  my  country  against  the  common  enemy. 

That  the  conversation  alluded  to  is  a  new  tale,  devised  in  the 
malignancy  of  party,  has  been  asserted  by  you;  and  on  this  assertion 
is  founded  many  of  your  strongest  conclusions  in  favour  of  your  own 
innocence.  But  what  must  the  world  think  of  your  effrontery,  when 
they  read  the  following  letter  of  Col.  Alexander  Hamilton,  who  was 
then  Aid-de-Camp  to  the  Commander-in-chief,  and  now  a  delegate  in 
Congress ;  whose  conduct  and  character  are  well  known  and  approved 
by  the  citizens  of  every  State  in  the  Union, — a  gentleman,  who,  being 
a  resident  of  the  State  of  New  York,  cannot  be  supposed  in  any 
manner  concerned  in  the  politics  of  Pennsylvania? 


30 

PHILADELPHIA,  \±tli  March,  1783. 

DEAR  SIR  : — Though  disagreeable  to  appear  in  any  manner  in  a 
personal  dispute ;  yet  I  cannot,  in  justice  to  you,  refuse  to  comply 
with  the  request  contained  in  your  note.  I  have  delayed  answering 
it,  to  endeavour  to  recollect,  with  more  precision,  the  time,  place  and 
circumstances  of  the  conversation,  to  which  you  allude.  I  cannot, 
however,  remember  with  certainty  more  than  this :  that  some  time 
in  the  campaign  of  seventy-seven,  at  head-quarters  in  this  State,  you 
mentioned  to  me  and  some  other  gentlemen  of  General  Washington's 
family,  in  a  confidential  way,  that  at  some  period  in  seventy-six,  I 
think  after  the  American  army  crossed  the  Delaware  in  its  retreat, 
Mr.  Reed  had  spoken  to  you  in  terms  of  great  despondency  respecting 
American  affairs,  and  had  intimated,  that  he  thought  it  time  for 
gentlemen  to  take  care  of  themselves,  and  that  it  was  unwise  any 
longer  to  follow  the  fortunes  of  a  ruined  cause,  or  something  of  a 
similar  import.  It  runs  in  my  mind,  tlat  the  expressions  you 
declared  to  have  been  made  use  of  by  Mr.  Keed  were,  that  he  thought 
lie  ought  no  longer  to  "  risk  his  life  and  fortunes  with  the  shattered 
remains  of  a  broken  army  :"  but  it  is  the  part  of  candour  to  observe, 
that  I  am  not  able  to  distinguish  with  certainty,  whether  the  recol 
lection  I  have  of  these  words  arises  from  the  strong  impression  made 
by  your  declaration  at  the  time,  or  from  having  heard  them  more 
than  once  repeated  within  a  year  past. 

I  am,  dear  sir,  with  great  esteem,  your  obedient  servant, 

A.  HAMILTON. 

To  General  Cadwalader. 

At  the  time  I  communicated  the  contents  of  Colonel  Hamilton's 
certificate  to  him,  in  confidence,  it  appears  by  your  own  acknowledg 
ment,  that*  "no  party  or  prejudices  existed,  (at  least  as  to  you/') — 
"  the  intercourse  arising  from  these  mingled  duties  and  services,  which 
were  continued  until  the  army  went  into  winter  quarters,  at  the 
VALLEY  FORGE,  soon  did  away  the  coolness  which  had  for  some  years 
subsisted,  and  in  no  small  degree  revived  our  former  habits  of  friend 
ship  ;" — "  but  it  was  our  lot  to  meet  again,  a  few  days  before  the 
battle  of  Monmouth ;  here  we  were  again  united  in  confidence  and 
danger.  After  the  battle,  we  left  the  army  together,  and  that  period 
closed  our  friendly  intercourse  forever."  From  these,  (your  expres 
sions,)  you  affect  to  believe,  and  wish  the  world  to  think,  that  our 
former  friendship  was  restored.  It  was  not  so;  I  cannot  call  it 
friendship.  The  transaction  I  have  mentioned  occasioned  the  disso 
lution  of  that  intimacy,  contracted  in  early  life,  which  but  little 

*  See  Gen.  Reed's  Address  to  the  Public,  pages  24,  25. 


31 

accorded  with  my  notion  of  perfect  integrity.  From  that  time,  and 
owing  solely  to  that  cause,  I  took  the  resolution  to  avoid  your  com 
pany,  as  a  private  gentleman,  and  which  I  constantly  adhered  to. 
Meeting  in  the  army,  where  we  served  most  of  the  time  in  the 
character  of  volunteers,  I  did  not  think  it  right  to  suffer  former 
dislikes  to  interrupt  the  duties  and  services  required  of  us  by  the 
Commander-in-chief)  so  necessary  for  mutual  and  general  safety.  If, 
then,  my  dislike  to  you  did  not  proceed  from  such  motives  as  some 
times  induce  men  to  seek  for  opportunities  of  gratifying  their  resent 
ments,  for  what  purpose  could  I  have  invented  such  a  "  tale  ?"  or  if 
my  resentment  was  such  as  you  represent,  why  did  I  not  gratify  it  by 
making  it  public  immediately  ?  at  that  time,  my  mind  could  not  have 
been  "inflamed  by  party;"  because  you  admit,  that  no  parties  then 
existed,  ("at  least  as  to  you;")  nor  could  my  ambition  have  been 
disappointed, — because,  being  commanding  officer  of  the  Pennsylvania 
Militia,  (the  council  of  safety,  who  then  held  the  powers  of  govern 
ment,)  could  not  gratify  me  further.  I  could  not  have  "  mistaken  a 
conversation  with  some  other  person/'  because  there  was  not  that 
"distance  of  time,"  which  you  suppose,  nor  can  it  be  conceived  by 
the  most  credulous  to  be  "  some  jocular  expression ;"  because  the 
situation  of  affairs  rather  suppressed  than  excited  in  you  the  appear 
ance  of  mirth.  Having  mentioned  this  conversation  long  before 
parties  were  formed  here,  it  must  appear  to  every  impartial  person, 
that  it  could  not  have  been  the  mere  invention  of  my  own  "  brain," 
suggested  in  the  spirit  of  party;  and  it  is  still  more  absurd  to  suppose, 
that  I  could  have  foreseen  that  you,  who  then  thought  as  I  did  con 
cerning  the  essential  objections  to  the  constitution  of  Pennsylvania, 
should  refuse  the  appointment  of  Chief  Justice,  because  you  could 
not,  in  conscience,  take  the  oath  of  office  ;  that  Mr.  Whartou  (the  first 
President,)  should  die ;  and  yet  that  you  should  afterwards  accept  the 
chair  of  government.  It  is,  however,  incontestibly  proved,  that  the  con 
versation  alluded  to  was  spoken  of  by  me  at  an  early  period,  and 
long  before  your  appointment  to  the  chair  of  government;  and  yet  you 
vsay,  "  the  prosecution  of  General  Arnold,  I  have  no  doubt,  gave  rise 
to  it."  If  I  was  to  leave  it  to  your  ingenuity  to  explain  to  the  world 
my  motives  for  inventing  such  a  "  tale,"  to  what  purposes  could  you 
possibly  impute  my  design  ?  It  could  not  be  to  gratify  my  resent 
ment  for  the  injury  you  attempted  upon  my  property;  because  I  did 
not  then  make  it  public ;  it  could  not  be  occasioned  by  any  personal 
offence  taken  in  1777,  (when  I  privately  mentioned  it  to  Colonel 
Hamilton,)  because  you  contend  that  our  "  former  habits  of  friend 
ship"  were  revived,  and  acknowledge,  that  I  never  made  it  public  for 
several  years  afterwards.  Here,  then,  the  man  of  humanity  may  ask 
me;  why  did  you,  at  so  late  a  date,  publicly  mention  a  circumstance 


32 

injurious  to  General  Reed's  reputation,  as  adjutant-general  of  the 
army  and  a  patriot,  which  after-services  ought  to  have  consigned  to 
oblivion  ?  The  question  is  a  natural  one,  and  I  will  give  it  an 
answer.  The  first  occasion  of  my  mentioning  this  matter  publicly 
was  this  :  soon  after  our  return  to  the  city,  in  the  year  1778,  among 
the  victims  selected  for  public  examples,  there  was  a  young  gentleman, 
with  whom  I  had  formed  an  intimacy  in  early  life.  I  considered 
him,  as  he  was  by  many,  (and  his  acquittal  justified  the  opinion,)  as 
unjustly  persecuted  ;  but  General  Reed,  who  had  resumed  his  original 
profession,  voluntarily  aided  the  prosecution,  and  with  all  the-forceof 
declamation,  labored  to  inflame  his  judges  and  jury  against  him.  It 
was  then,  recollecting  how  near  he  once  appeared  to  the  commission 
of  the  same  offence  which  he  charged  upon  the  other,  or  at  least  to  a 
defection  from  the  cause,  that  my  indignation  broke  out  at  the  trial, 
saying  to  those  around  me,  that  il  it  argiied  the  extremity  of  effrontery 
and  baseness,  in  one  man  to  pursue  another  to  death,  for  taking  a  step 
which  his  own  foot  had  been  once  raised  to  take  !"*  This  was  anterior 
to  his  elevation  to  the  Presidency,  and  whilst  his  powers  of  doing 
mischief,  were  he  so  inclined,  were  circumscribed  by  the  narrowness 
of  his  sphere  of  action  ;  at  such  a  time,  could  I  think  his  loss  of  fame 
so  essential  to  the  public  good,  or,  if  he  will,  to  the  purposes  of  party, 
as  to  be  willing  to  attempt  it,  at  the  expense  of  my  private  veracity, 
my  honour  and  conscience. 

The  inconsistency  of  such  ostensible  conduct,  and  the  baseness  of 
a  meditated  defection,  is  not  irreconcilable  to  those  who  have  had 
opportunities  of  knowing  that  he  is  not  incapable  of  such  vast  ex 
tremes  j  who  have  seen  him  at  the  bar  of  the  assembly  he  himself 
disqualified  by  the  non-compliance  with  the  test  of  laws,  as  since  fully 
appears  by  a  publication  signed  Sidne}7,  unblushingly  attempt  to  set 
aside  the  famous  Chester  election,  upon  the  suggestion  of  its  having 
been  carried  by  electors  disqualified  from  the  like  circumstances. 

It  is  thus  I  would  have  answered  the  question,  why  I  have  men- 

*  As  a  proof  of  my  having  made  this  declaration,  and  the  occasion  of  it,  I  offer 
the  following  letter  : 

DEAR  Sm : — I  have,  at  your  request,  charged  my  recollection  with  what  fell  from 
you,  in  the  hearing  of  myself  and  several  others,  at  the  trial  of  Mr.  William 
Hamilton,  on  the  subject  of  Mr.  Reed,  who  assisted  the  prosecution ;  it  was  in 
terms  to  this  effect;  that  it  indicated  the  extremity  of  baseness  in  him,  to  attempt 
to  destroy  another  for  taking  the  very  step  he  had  once  lifted  his  own  foot  to  take. 
This,  at  the  instant,  made  a  deeper  impression  me,  as  having  never  till  then, 
though  living  in  the  closest  intimacy,  heard  you  drop  the  most  distant  hint  of  any 
intended  defection  of  Mr.  Reed,  of  which  I  myself  had  no  suspicion. 

Your  humble  servant, 

March  2d,  1783.  GEORGE  CLYMER. 

General  Cadwalader. 


33 

tioned  publicly  your  meditated  defection,  and  I  trust  that  such  provo 
cation  merited  those  reflections  which  might  otherwise  have  remained 
in  my  own  breast. 

The  objection  to  the  force  of  my  .single  testimony  thus  obviated, 
did  no  other  offer  to  corroborate  it,  I  should  not  hesitate  to  submit  it, 
under  such  circumstances,  to  the  judgment  of  the  public,  resting  their 
determination  upon  the  credit  of  my  veracity  against  yours.  Having 
supported  an  unblemished  character,  I  dare  defy  any  person  to  pro 
duce  an  instance  where  I  have  even  been  suspected  of  an  untruth,  or 
of  a  base  or  dishonourable  action.  Conscious  of  the  truth  of  what  I 
have  asserted,  I  have  no  fears  that  my  conduct  will  ever  "  dishonour 
me  with  the  wise  and  virtuous." 

The  reason  I  have  assigned  for  the  dissolution  of  our  intimacy  ante 
cedent  to  the  war,  will  afford  a  better  proof  of  your  ingenuity  than 
your  integrity ;  and  further,  (with  respect  to  your  veracity,)  if  any 
other  instance  is  necessary,  let  me  add  one  which  happened  at  camp, 
(at  head-quarters,)  in  the  year  1777,  soon  after  the  battle  of  German- 
town,  when  in  my  hearing,  and  in  the  presence  of  three  officers  of  the 
first  rank  in  the  army,  you  was  charged  to  your  face  with  a  falsehood, 
and  which  was  fully  proved  the  next  day,  by  the  general  officer  who 
made  the  charge. 

And  now,  before  I  introduce  the  concurrent  testimony  in  support 
cf  my  assertion,  I  shall  take  but  a  momentary  notice  here  of  those 
disrespectful  expressions  with  which  you  have  decorated  your  pamphlet. 
Weakness  of  head,  is  an  accusation  of  a  kind  which  it  would  equally 
puzzle  the  fool  and  the  wise  to  reply  to;  but  against  that  of  badness 
of  heart,  my  known  tenor  of  conduct,  in  private  and  public  life,  must 
be  my  defence ;  if  that  fails,  it  must  be  needless  in  me  to  set  up  any 
other. 

But  if  even  prejudiced  men  should  still  doubt  the  truth  of  my 
assertion,  with  respect  to  the  conversation  alluded  to,  in  the  above 
representation,  every  doubt  must  be  removed  upon  reading  the  follow 
ing  certificates. 

Hermitage,  5th  October,  1782. 

DEAR  GENERAL, — In  the  winter  of  1776,  after  we  had  crossed  the 
Delaware,  General  Reed,  in  conversation  with  me,  said  that  he,  and 
several  others  of  my  friends,  were  surprised  at  seeing  me  there.  I 
told  him,  I  did  not  understand  such  a  conversation ;  that  as  I  had 
engaged  in  the  cause  from  principle,  I  was  determined  to  share  the 
fate  of  my  country;  to  which  he  made  no  reply,  and  the  conversation 
ended.  As  I  had  the  honour  of  commanding  the  militia  of  New  Jersey, 
both  duty  and  inclination  led  me  to  use  every  exertion,  in  support  of 
a  cause  I  had  engaged  in  from  the  purest  motives.  I  was  really 

3 


34 

much  surprised  at  General  Reed's  manner,  considering  the  station  he 
then  acted  in,  and  his  reputation  as  a  patriot;  but  I  considered  it  as 
the  effect  of  despondency,  from  the  then  gloomy  prospect  of  our 
affairs. 

This  I  mentioned  to  several  of  my  friends  at  the  time,  who  all 
viewed  it  in  the  same  point  of  light. 

I  am,  dear  General,  yours, 

General  Cadwalader.  P.  DICKINSON. 

I  do  hereby  certify,  that  in  December,  1776,  while  the  militia  lay 
at  Bristol,  General  Reed,  to  the  best  of  my  recollection  and  belief, 
upon  my  inquiring  the  news,  and  what  he  thought  of  our  affairs  in 
general,  said  that  appearances  were  very  gloomy  and  unfavourable  ; 
that  he  was  fearful  or  apprehensive  the  business  was  nearly  settled,  or 
the  game  almost  up,  or  words  to  the  same  effect.  That  these  senti 
ments  appeared  to  me  very  extraordinary  and  dangerous,  as  I  con 
ceived  they  would,  at  that  time,  have  a  very  bad  tendency,  if  publicly 
known  to  be  the  sentiments  of  General  Reed,  who  then  held  an 
appointment  in  the  army  of  the  first  consequence. 

Philadelphia,  March  12,  1783.  JOHN  DIXON. 

A  few  days  before  the  battle  of  Trenton,  on  the  26th  of  December, 
1776,  I  rode  with  Mr.  Reed  from  Bristol  to  Head  Quarters  near  New 
Town.  In  the  course  of  our  ride,  our  conversation  turned  upon  public 
affairs,  when  Mr.  Reed  expressed  himself  in  the  manner  following. 

He  spoke  with  great  respect  of  the  bravery  of  the  British  troops, 
and  with  great  contempt  of  the  cowardice  of  the  American,  and  more 
especially  of  the  New  England  troops.  So  great  was  the  terror  in 
spired  by  the  British  soldiers  into  the  minds  of  our  men,  that  he  said, 
when  a  British  soldier  was  brought  as  a  prisoner  to  our  camp,  our 
soldiers  viewed  him  at  a  distance  as  a  superior  kind  of  being. 

Upon  my  lamenting  to  him  the  supposed  defection  of  Mr.  Dickinson, 
who  it  was  unjustly  said,  had  deserted  his  country,  he  used  the  fol 
lowing  words  :  "Damn  him — I  wish  the  devil  had  him,  when  he  wrote 
the  Farmer's  letters.  He  has  began  an  opposition  to  Great  Britain 
which  we  have  not  strength  to  finish." 

Upon  my  lamenting  that  a  gentleman,  of  his  acquaintance,  had 
submitted  to  the  enemy,  he  said,  "  that  he  had  acted  properly,  and 
that  a  man  who  had  a  family,  did  right  to  take  that  care  of  them." 

The  whole  of  his  conversation  upon  the  subject  of  our  affairs,  indi 
cated  a  great  despair  of  the  American  cause. 

Upon  my  going  to  Baltimore,  to  take  my  seat  in  Congress,  the 
latter  end  of  January,  I  mentioned  the  above  conversation  to  my 
brother.  I  likewise  mentioned  it  to  the  Hon.  John  Adams,  Esq., 


35 

with  whom  I  then  lived  in  intimacy,  a  day  or  two  after  his  return  from 
Boston  to  Congress.  I  did  not  mention  it  with  a  view  of  injuring  Mr. 
Reed,  for  I  still  respected  him,  especially  as  I  then  believed  that  the 
victory  at  Trenton  had  restored  the  tone  of  his  mind,  and  dissipated 
his  fears,  but  to  show  Mr.  Adams  an  instance  of  a  man  possessing 
and  exercising  military  spirit  and  activity,  and  yet  deficient  in  political 
fortitude.  To  which  I  well  remember  Mr.  Adams  replied  in  the 
following  words  :  "  The  powers  of  the  human  mind  are  combined  to 
gether  in  an  infinite  variety  of  ways." 

BENJAMIN  RUSH. 
Philadelphia,  March  3,  1783. 

I  went  with  Congress  to  Baltimore,  in  1776.  On  the  arrival  of 
my  brother  there,  a  few  weeks  afterwards,  I  called  to  see  him.  To 
the  best  of  my  recollection,  Mr.  Clerk  and  Dr.  Witherspoon,  delegates 
from  New  Jersey,  were  in  the  room  with  him.  The  two  former,  after 
some  time  withdrew,  and  my  brother  then  mentioned  the  conversation 
as  related  by  him  above.  He  informed  me,  also,  of  some  other  con 
versation  that  passed  between  Mr.  Reed  and  him;  which  is  not  neces 
sary  at  present  to  repeat. 

JACOB  RUSH. 

Philadelphia,  March  3,  1783. 

Joseph  Ellis,  a  Colonel  of  Militia,  in  the  county  of  Gloucester,  and 
State  of  New  Jersey,  doth  hereby  certify,  that  upon  the  retreat  of  a 
body  of  militia  from  before  Count  Donop,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Mount 
Holly,  in  Burlington  county,  in  the  month  of  December,  1776,  he 
met  with  Charles  Pettit,  Esq.,  then  Secretary  of  the  said  State,  that  a 
conversation  ensued  between  them  respecting  the  situation  of  the 
public  dispute  at  that  period ;  that  Mr.  Pettit,  in  said  conversation, 
representing  that  our  affairs  were  desperate,  Col.  Ellis  endeavoured  to 
dissuade  him  from  such  an  opinion,  when  Mr.  Pettit  replied,  "  What 
hurts  me  more  than  all  is,  my  brother-in-law,  General  Reed,  has,  (or  I 
believe  he  has,)  given  up  the  contest."  That  a  good  deal  more  passed 
between  Mr.  Pettit  and  Col.  Ellis,  during  the  said  cnnversation,  but 
omitted  here,  as  being  thought  unnecessary. 

JOSEPH  ELLIS. 

Woodbury,  March  97  1783. 

I  do  certify  that  I  was  present  at  the  conversation  alluded  to  above; 
that  although  I  cannot  recollect  the  express  words  made  use  of  in  the 
said  conversation,  yet  such  conversation  did  take  place,  and  that  the 
substance  of  it  answers  to  the  certificate  of  Col.  Ellis. 

FRANKLIN  DAVENPORT. 
Woodbury,  March  9,  1783. 


36 

Those  are  to  certify,  that  in  December,  1776,  and  January,  1777, 
I,  the  subscriber,  was  Major  of  the  second  battalion  of  Philadelphia 
Militia,  whereof  John  Bayard  was  Colonel,  and  then  lay  at  Bristol, 
and  part  of  the  time  opposite  Trenton,  on  the  Pennsylvania  side. 
That  while  we  lay  at  Bristol,  Joseph  Reed,  Esq.,  joined  us ;  that 
during  his  being  there  and  near  Trenton,  he  often  went  out  for  intel 
ligence,  as  Col.  Bayard  told  me,  over  to  Burlington,  in  which  place 
the  enemy  frequently  were;  that  being  absent  frequently  all  day  and 
all  night,  I  as  frequently  inquired  what  could  become  of  Gen.  Reed. 
Col.  Bayard  often  answered  me,  he  feared  he  had  left  us 'and  gone 
over  to  the  enemy.  One  time  in  particular,  being  absent  two  days 
and  two  nights,  if  not  three  nights,  Col.  Bayard  came  to  me  with  great 
concern,  and  said  he  was  fully  persuaded  Gen.  Reed  was  gone  to  join 
the  enemy  and  make  his  peace.  I  asked  him,  how  he  could  possibly 
think  so  of  a  man,  who  had  taken  so  early  a  part,  and  had  acted 
steadily.  He  replied,  he  was  persuaded  it  was  so ;  for  he  knew  the 
General  thought  it  was  all  over,  and  that  we  would  not  stand  against 
the  enemy ;  and  at  the  same  time  wept  much.  I  endeavoured  all  I 
could  to  drive  such  notions  from  him,  but  he  was  so  fully  persuaded 
that  he  had  left  us  and  gone  over  to  the  enemy,  that  arguing  about 
the  matter  was  only  loss  of  time ;  Col.  Bayard  often  making  mention, 
that  he  knew  his  sentiments  much  better  than  I  did.  After  being 
absent  two  or  three  nights,  Gen.  Reed  returned,  and  I  never  saw  more 
joy  expressed  than  was  by  Col.  Bayard;  he  declared  to  me,  that  he 
was  glad  Gen.  Reed  was  returned,  for  he  was  fully  convinced  in  his 
own  mind  that  he  was  gone  over  to  the  enemy. 

WILLIAM  BRADFORD. 
Manor  of  Moreland,  Philadelphia  County,  March  15,  1783. 

Having  been  called  upon  by  General  Cadwalader  respecting  a 
report  which  has  been  propagated  concerning  Mr.  Joseph  Reed — I 
declare  on  my  honour,  the  circumstances  are  as  follows.  In  the  spring 
of  1780,  I  obtained  permission  for  an  interview  with  my  brother  at 
Elizabethtown.  In  the  course  of  conversation,  one  day,  he  happened 
to  mention  that  there  were  men  among  us,  who  held  the  first  offices, 
who  applied  for  protection  from  the  British  while  they  lay  in  New 
Jersey.  I  was  alarmed  at  this  assertion,  and  insisted  on  knowing 
who  they  were ; — he  said,  that  when  the  British  army  lay  in  Jersey, 
in  1776,  Count  Donop  commanded  at  Bordentown ;  that  he  was  often 
at  that  officer's  quarters,  and  possessed  some  degree  of  his  confidence; 
that  one  day,  an  inhabitant  came  irdo  their  lines,  with  an  application 
from  Mr.  Joseph  Reed,  thepurport  of  which  was,  to  know  whether  he 
could  have  protection  for  himself  and  his  property,  (there  was  another 
person  included  in  the  application,  whose  name  it  is  not  necessary 


37 

here  to  mention.)  The  man  was  immediately  ordered  for  execution, 
but  it  was  prevented  by  the  interposition  of  my  brother  and  some 
other  persons,  who  had  formerly  known  him.  Perhaps  Mr.  Reed 
and  his  friends  may  say,  that  Count  Donop  would  not  have  ordered 
the  man  executed,  had  he  not  thought  he  came  for  intelligence.  No 
doubt  that  officer  would  have  justified  his  conduct  by  putting  upon 
the  footing  of  a  spy,  but  why  was  another  person  included  in  the 
application,  and  one  who'was  not  looked  on  as  a  trifling  character? 
his  name  I  will  mention  to  any  one  who  will  apply  to  me;  however, 
my  brother  said,  the  man  who  was  sent  with  the  application  was  a 
poor  peasant,  and  the  most  unfit  person  in  the  world  to  send  for  in 
telligence  ;  this  argument  was  what  had  weight  with  Count  Donop, 
and  which  saved  his  life.*  These  circumstances  being  mentioned  by 
a  brother,  and  which  he  declared  to  be  true,  naturally  produced  an 
alteration  in  my  sentiments  of  Mr.  Heed  ;  for  previous  to  this,  there 
were  few  men  of  whom  I  entertained  so  high  an  opinion.  On  my 
return  to  Philadelphia,  I  made  no  secret  of  what  I  heard ;  indeed,  I 
thought  it  my  duty  to  mention  it  publicly,  that  it  might  prevent 
further  power  being  put  into  the  hands  of  a  man  who  might  make  a 
bad  use  of  it.  The  report  circulated  daily,  and  I  was  often  called  on 
to  mention  the  circumstances,  which  I  always  did,  and  which  I  should 
have  done  to  Mr.  Heed,  had  he  applied  to  ine.  I  remember,  among 
the  number  who  came  to  me,  was  Major  Thomas  Moore,  who  said  he 
intended  to  inform  Mr.  Reed;  but  whether  he  did  or  not,  I  cannot 
pretend  to  say. 

There  is  another  thing  I  wish  to  mention.  My  brother  came  into 
the  river  in  a  flag  of  truce,  on  special  application  of  our  commissary 
of  prisoners,  to  take  a  number  of  prisoners  who  were  exchanged,  to 
save  us  the  expense  and  trouble  of  sending  them  by  land ;  this  was 
in  the  month  of  May,  1781.  He  was  detained,  about  nine  miles 

*  If  the  countryman  was  sent,  as  he  insinuated,  for  intelligence,  and  not  for  a 
protection  for  Mr.  Reed  and  his  friend,  is  it  not  very  extraordinary,  in  a  case  of  this 
nature,  after  the  man  had  so  narrowly  escaped  with  his  life,  that  no  circumstance 
relating  to  so  delicate  an  affair,  (transacted  in  so  private  a  manner)  should  ever 
have  come  to  my  knowledge,  till  I  heard  this  testimony  from  Major  Lennox  ? 

I  will  venture  to  say  that  no  officer  of  the  army,  at  that  critical  period,  would 
have  risked  his  reputation,  though  he  had  afforded  no  cause  to  suspect  his  firmness, 
by  instructing  a  spy  to  apply  fur  a  protection  for  him,  with  a  view  of  gaining  intel 
ligence,  without  mentioning  it  to  his  commanding  officer  before  the  transaction. 
But  in  the  instance  before  us,  it  is  worthy  notice,  that  in  so  critical  a  situation  of 
public  affairs,  Mr.  Reed,  knowing  how  dangerous  such  a  plea  as  the  messenger  had 
used  might  prove  to  his  reputation,  in  the  hands  of  the  enemy,  should  not  have 
endeavoured  to  obviate  such  a  tale,  by  mentioning  the  circumstance  to  the  command 
ing  officer  at  Bristol,  who  might  have  vouched  for  his  innocence,  in  case  Donop 
should  attempt  to  injure  him  afterwards. 


38 

below  the  city,  upwards  of  four  weeks,  and  never  permitted  to  visit 
it,  although  application  was  made  for  that  purpose,  by  several  captains 
of  vessels,  who  had  been  prisoners,  and  to  whom  he  had  rendered 
civilities.  I  declined  making  application  myself,  as  I  supposed  my 
being  in  the  service  from  the  commencement  of  the  war,  and  having 
endured  a  rigorous  confinement  for  eighteen  months,  in  the  worst  of 
times,  to  have  been  sufficient  to  have  obtained  permission  for  a 
brother  to  have  been  in  my  house,  in  preference  to  a  cabin  in  a  small 
vessel  in  a  river  j — however,  I  endeavoured  to  make  his  situation  as 
agreeable  as  possible,  by  visiting  him  often,  and  by  taking  my  friends 
with  me.  I  REMEMBER  Col.  Francis  Nichols  went  with  me  one  day, 
to  whom  my  brother  mentioned  Mr.  Reed's  intended  desertion,  and 
who,  I  doubt  not,  will  acknowledge  it,  on  any  person's  applying  to 
him  j  he  is  at  present  in  Virginia,  but  is  expected  in  town  in  a  few 
days. 

DAVID  LENNOX. 

Having  been  called  upon  by  General  Cadwalader,  to  certify,  so  far 
as  my  knowledge  extends,  as  to  the  matter  hereinafter  mentioned,  I 
do  declare,  that  in  the  spring  of  the  year  1781,  I  went  with  Major 
Lennox,  of  this  city,  on  board  of  a  flag  of  truce  vessel,  then  lying  in 
the  river  Delaware,  where  she  had  arrived  from  New  York,  and  heard 
Mr.  Eobert  Lennox,  deputy  commissary  of  prisoners  under  the 
British  king,  say,  that  in  the  year  of  1776,  a  person  had  arrived  at 
Count  Donop's  quarters,  near  Bordentown,  in  New  Jersey,  who  told 
the  Count,  that  he  had  been  sent  to  him  by  Gen.  Reed  and  another 
person,  whose  name  I  do  not  think  necessary  to  mention,  to  procure 
a  protection  for  them ;  that  the  Count  refused  to  grant  them  a  protec 
tion  in  that  manner,  and  was  about  to  treat  the  person  who  had 
applied  to  him  as  a  spy,  but  was  prevented  by  the  entreaties  of  the 
said  Robert  Lennox,  and  some  other  gentlemen. 

Philadelphia,  17th  March,  1783.  FRANCIS  NICHOLS. 

Here,  then,  it  fully  appears,  that  the  testimony  contained  in  the 
above  certificates,  all  point  to  the  same  object,  and  to  the  same  period 
mentioned  by  me,  supporting  and  confirming  each  other.  They  like 
wise  clearly  prove  the  whole  progress  of  your  meditated  defection  ; 
they  prove  that  you  deceived  me  by  those  professions,  by  which  I  had 
been  induced  to  trust  to  your  appearances  of  fidelity,  as  you  absolutely 
made  an  application  for  a  protection  to  Count  Donop,  in  which  an 
intimate  friend  of  yours  was  included. 

But  what  opinion  must  the  world  form  of  your  veracity,  when  you 
are  detected  in  falsely  asserting,  that  you  had  not  mentioned  such 
sentiments  to  your  most  intimate  friends  and  relations.  "  Is  it  not 


39 

utterly  incredible,"  you  say,  "  tbat  I  should  hold  such  communication 
or  sentiments  from  my  most  intimate  friends  and  relations,  and  make 
it  to  a  person  with  whom  I  had  held  no  friendship  for  many  years ; 
who  had  received  me  with  coldness."  Mr.  Pettit  is  your  relation, 
and  Col.  Bayard  your  most  intimate  friend,  with  whom,  at  that  time, 
you  had  the  freest  intercourse.  To  these  you  communicated  your 
sentiments,  as  appears  by  the  certificates  of  Col.  Bradford,  Col. 
Ellis,  and  Mr.  Davenport;  but  your  friend,  hinted  at  in  Major 
Lennox's  certificate,  had  consented  to  accompany  you  in  your  intended 
desertion.  The  height  of  your  iniquity  does  not  end  here;  you  en 
deavoured,  by  your  influence,  to  spread  general  disaffection,  in  order 
to  lessen  your  share  of  the  infamy,  by  dividing  it  among  many.  Had 
you  conferred  with  men  whose  principles  were  in  every  instance  like 
your  own,  you  might  have  succeeded,  as  every  person  concerned 
might  have  carried  off  ^is  particular  friend  with  him. 

If  all  the  evidence  which  now  appears  against  you,  had  been  pro 
duced  at  that  time,  what  would  have  been  your  fate,  as  you  then, 
(being  Adjutant- General  of  the  army,)  was  subject  to  the  Continental 
articles  of  war  ? 

In  the  10th  page  you  say,. you  can  "truly  declare,  that  the  subject 
of  the  present  slander  was  not  known  to  you,  till  its  appearance  in  the 
newspaper."  Having  mentioned  it  at  the  Coffee  House,  (as  appears 
by  Mr.  Pryor's  certifiate,)  in  the  presence  of  some  of  your  friends,  it 
was  reasonable  to  expect  they  would  have  informed  you  of  it ;  but  it 
seems  there  is  some  difference  between  private  information  and  a  public 
charge  made  in  the  papers.  As  a  gentleman,  there  can,  in  my 
opinion,  be  no  difference;  as  you  say,  in  your  letter  of  the  9th  Sept. 
last,  that  this  insinuation  seems  to  deserve  some  credit  from  a  refer 
ence  to  me.  You  insinuate,  that  if  you  had  heard  it,  you  should 
have  noticed  it.  To  this,  however,  the  world  will  give  little  credit, 
as  you  made  no  public  or  private  inquiry  respecting  the  charge  made 
in  Major  Lennox's  certificate,  though  he  communicated  it  to  Major 
Thomas  Moore,  son  of  the  late  President,  whose  permission  I  have  for 
asserting  publicly,  that  he  informed  you  of  what  Major  Lennox  had 
related,  the  very  day  he  heard  it. 

The  matters  mentioned  in  Major  Lennox's  certificate,  and  in  that 
of  Col.  Nichols  reach  vastly  beyond  me;  here  you  absolutely  apply  for 
protection ;  and  if  one  report  demanded  your  notice,  in  reference  to 
my  authorities,  why  not  another,  more  alarming  to  you,  your  notice 
in  reference  to  Major  Lennox? 

But  the  consciousness  of  the  communications  made  to  confidential 
friends,  and  others,  suggested  the  fear  of  other  proofs.  As  long  as  it 
was  only  communicated  by  private  information,  you  were  willing  to 
submit  to  private  censure.  But  when  a  charge,  which  originated 


40 

from  me,  was  made  in  the  papers,  it  reduced  you  to  the  disagreeable 
alternative  of  a  tacit  confession,  or  the  hazard  of  public  proof.  And 
in  the  present  instance,  if  I  am  rightly  informed,  you  was  perfectly 
disposed  to  treat  the  publication  signed  Brutus,  with  that  «  silent 
contempt/'  which,  you  say,  you  have  for  a  "  long  time  observed,  with 
respect  to  the  anonymous  abuse  which  disgraces  our  public  papers  ;" 
but  your  friends,  feeling  the  weight  of  the  charge,  goaded  you  into  so 
unfortunate  a  measure.  "  Unhappy  man  !  against  whose  peace  and 
happiness  all  are  combined." 

What  answer  can  you  make  to  the  weight  of  testimony  here  pro 
duced  against  you  ?  I  see  nothing  left,  but  to  declare  to  the  world, 
that  the  whole  is  a  wicked  combination  to  destroy  you;  you  may  say, 
"  you  thought  me  entitled  to  the  whole  infamy  of  the  insinuation," 
till  the  above  mentioned  witnesses  "consented  to  divide  it  with  me;" 
and  that,  "  if  you  did  not  sufficiently  measure,  the  malignancy  of  their 
dispositions,  or  thought  more  favourably  of  them  than  you  ought  to 
have  done,  you  are  content  to  acknowledge  your  error,  and  do  full 
justice  in  this  respect  hereafter;"  and  if  any  person  should  ask  you, 
would  all  these  gentlemen  hazard  such  assertions  without  foundation? 
you  may  answer,  "  it  is  difficult  to  resolve  what  men  of  ungovernable 
passions  will  or  will  not  say,  when  their  minds  are  inflamed  by  party, 
and  their  breasts  burning  with  disappointed  ambition;"  may  they  not 
have  "  mistaken  a  conversation  with  some  other  person,  or  at  this 
distance  of  time,  converted  some  JOCULAR  EXPRESSION  into  such 
suspicions  as  they  have  mentioned ;"  and  you  may  add,  "  the  MEMO 
RIES  of  MEN  may  fail ;  their  minds  are  subject  to  the  warp  of  prejudice 
and  passion  ;  they  may  convert  into  serious  import  what  was  dropped 
io  JEST;  and,  from  false  pride,  persist  in  what  they  have  said,  because 
they  have  said  it,  even  against  the  conviction  of  their  own  con 
sciences." 

In  your  letter  of  the  23d  of  September  last,  you  say,  "you  have 
declared  the  insinuations  in  Oswald's  paper  of  the  7th  inst.  false ; 
and  you  apply  the  same  epithet  to  my  avowal  of  them."  This  asser 
tion  has  been  fully  refuted  by  the  concurrent  testimony  of  your 
intimate  friends  and  others.  In  your  friends,  you  thought  yourself 
perfectly  secure;  but  the  weakness  of  two  of  them  has  betrayed  you, 
and  the  third  is  proved  your  accomplice. 

It  would,  indeed,  have  appeared  somewhat  extraordinary,  if  you 
had  not  discovered  your  intentions  to  some  of  your  intimate  friends 
and  relations;  and  that  "no  circumstance  should  occur  to  correspond 
with  this  imputation,"  after  having  communicated  the  same  to  me. 
Nor  are  proofs  wanting,  if  they  were  here  necessary,  independently  of 
those  I  have  already  adduced,  with  respect  to  some  of  your  friends, 
who  at  the  time  held  considerable  commands  in  the  militia. 


41 

And  "though  specially  sent  by  General  Washington,"  as  you  say, 
"for  the  express  purpose  of  assisting  me,"  it  may  not  be  here  im 
proper  to  makex  a  short  observation,  in  which  I  conceive  I  shall  be 
perfectly  justifiable.  Though  the  duties  of  an  Adjutant  General 
would  naturally  confine  you  to  the  Continental  army,  yet  I  can  easily 
conceive  that  there  was  no  difficulty,  by  hints  thrown  out,  or  by  the 
interposition  of  a  friend,  to  induce  the  commandcr-in-chief  to  permit 
you  to  come  to  Bristol,  under  the  pretence  of  assisting  me ;  being,  as 
you  represent,  well  acquainted  with  the  inhabitants  of  Burlington, 
through  whom  you  might  obtain  information.  But  from  the  evidence 
which  appears  against  you,  it  will  not  be  thought  uncharitable  to  con 
clude,  that  you  conceived  your  plan  could  be  better  executed  at  Bris 
tol,  than  under  the  eye  of  General  Washington.  Besides,  you  might 
reasonably  hope  to  shake  more  easily  the  constancy  of  untried  officers 
of  militia,  than  those  in  the  army,  whose  minds  might  be  supposed 
better  fortified  against  such  attacks. 

I  am  at  a  loss  for  words  to  express  my  indignation  for  the  attempt 
you  made  on  my  integrity ;  for  though  I  did  not  see  it  in  that  point 
of  view  at  the  time,  yet  the  whole  testimony,  as  now  collected,  fully 
proves  such  to  have  been  your  intention ;  and  happy  I  conceive  it  to 
be  for  my  own  honour  and  the  safety  of  my  country,  that  you  found 
in  me  that  strength  of  mind,  which  you  might  not  have  experienced 
in  some  of  your  particular  friends,  had  they  been  in  my  situation. 

The  circumstances  relating  to  the  letter  you  wrote  Count  Donop, 
created  at  the  time  no  suspicions;  nor  do  I  recollect  any  publication 
which  alludes  to  it.  This  affair,  and  that  mentioned  by  Major  Lenox, 
are  distinct  transactions;  but  it  is  not  more  than  probable,  that  at  the 
interview  you  proposed  under  cover  of  serving  the  inhabitants  of  Bur 
lington,  you  intended  to  confer  with  Count  Donop  upon  the  subject 
of  your  own  interest  and  personal  safety?  This  suspicion,  in  my 
opinion,  is  perfectly  warranted  by  the  indubitable  proofs  of  your 
intended  desertion.  Another  circumstance  relating  to  this  affair  was 
equally  unusual  and  improper.  Mr.  Daniel  Ellis,*  by  whom  you 
sent  the  letter  with  a  flag,  was  universally  known  to  be  disaffected; 
having  been  so  long  in  the  service  you  could  not  be  ignorant  of  those 
obvious  reasons,  which  prove  the  propriety  of  sending  men  with  flags, 
whose  attachment  to  the  cause  is  well  known,  and  men  of  observation. 

Every  page,  almost,  of  your  publication  is  full  of  reflections  against 
me,  and  almost  upon  every  subject;  so  intent  have  you  been  to  injure 
my  reputation.  The  errors  I  committed  during  my  command  may 
serve  a  double  purpose ;  because  he  who  committed  them  is  subject 
to  censure,  and  he  who  points  them  out  claims  the  merit  of  the  dis- 

*  I  have  ample  proofs  of  Mr.  Ellis's  attachment  to  the  enemy,  which  may  be 
produced,  if  necessary. 


42 

eovery.  That  I  committed  errors,  I  readily  admit;  my  friends  have 
marked  some,  and  subsequent  experience  discovered  others;  but  I 
am  conscious  they  proceed  from  want  of  experience,  not  a  want  of 
integrity.  Why,  then,  need  I  seek  to  justify  myself,  when,  from  the 
nature  of  the  war,  considerable  commands  were,  from  necessity, 
entrusted  to  young  officers,  there  being  few  amongst  us  to  whom  the 
profession  was  not  entirely  new.  But,  I  confess,  it  would  give  me 
infinite  pain,  if,  by  "a  strange  inattention  of  mine  to  the  tide  and 
state  of  the  river,"  and  the  not  arriving  "  one  hour"  sooner  at  Dunk's 
Ferry,  we  had  lost  the  opportunity  of  striking  a  blow  at  Mount  Holly, 
of  equal  glory  with  that  at  Trenton.  When  you  insinuated,  in  the 
former  part  of  your  address,  a  superior  knowledge  in  military  matters, 
by  saying  you  had  more  "experience,"  I  gave  up  the  point,  and  left 
you  the  happiness  of  thinking  so ;  for  why  should  I  have  contended 
a  point  with  a  man  who,  throughout  his  pamphlet,  assumes  to  him 
self  the  merit  of  all  those  brilliant  successes,  so  highly  commended 
even  by  our  enemies,  and  which  determined  the  fate  of  American 
independence.  And  if  I  was  sensible  that  the  charge  you  now  make 
was  true,  or  could  be  thought  so;  by  competent  judges,  I  would  scorn 
to  defend  my  error. 

My  orders  were,  to  make  the  attack  one  hour  before  day,  and  to 
effect  a  surprise,  if  possible.  The  impropriety,  therefore,  of  sending 
the  boats  from  Bristol  to  Dunk's  Ferry,  and  marching  the  troops  from 
the  same  place  in  open  day,  is  evident,  as  such  a  movement  must 
have  been  observed,  and  communicated  to  the  enemy.  And  now, 
tell  me  the  instance,  where  even  continental  troops  have  arrived  at 
the  point  of  attack  at  the  given  time?  It  was  General  Washington's 
intention  to  have  made  his  attack  on  Trenton  before  day;  yet,  from 
unavoidable  delays,  he  did  not  arrive  there  till  after  eight  o'clock  in. 
the  morning.  We  reached  Dunk's  Ferry  a  little  before  low  water, 
and  can  any  person  believe,  that  if  we  had  arrived  "  one  hour  sooner," 
we  could  have  passed  over  near  twenty-five  hundred  men,  four  pieces 
of  cannon,  ammunition  wagons  and  horses,  and  all  the  horses  belong 
ing  to  officers,  in  that  time,  in  the  night  too,  and  the  river  full  of  ice, 
with  only  five  large  batteauxs  and  two  or  three  scows;  when  it  took 
us  at  least  six  hours,  (a  day  or  two  afterwards,)  to  cross  above  Bristol, 
in  open  day  and  the  river  almost  clear  of  ice.  Strange  "inattention," 
unhappy  commander !  That  "  a  single  hour,  which  we  might  have 
enjoyed  with  equal  convenience  and  equal  risk,"  should  be  the  only 
obstacle  to  a  scene  of  equal  glory  with  that  of  Trenton,  and  yet  you 
have  represented  to  General  Washington,  as  appears  by  his  letter,* 

*  M'Kenney's  Ferry,  25th  December,  1776,  6  o'clock,  P.  M. 

Dear  Sir, — Notwithstanding  the  discouraging  accounts  I  have  received  from  Col. 
Reed,  of  what  might  be  expected  from  the  operations  below,  I  am  determined,  as 


43 

dated  six  o'clock,  P.  M.,  25th  December,  1776,  to  me,  being  the  very 
same  niylit,  and  before  we  marched  to  Dunk's  Ferry,  that  you  gave 
him  the  most  discouraging  accounts  of  what  might  be  expected  from 
our  operations  below.  What,  then,  were  those  discouraging  accounts  ? 
Why  was  I  not  acquainted  with  them  ?  or  were  they  thrown  out  to 
influence  him  from  making  his  attempt  on  Trenton,  by  representing 
that  no  co-operation  from  our  quarter  could  favour  his  enterprise  ? 
In  the  general's  opinion,  it  is  plain,  it  had  that  tendency.  But  in  the 
heedless  fury  of  this  stroke  at  me,  you  have  incautiously  unguarded 
your  most  tender  part. 

"Anxious  to  fill  up  the  part  of  this  glorious  plan  assigned  to  us," 
you  "  passed  over,  you  say,  with  your  horse,  to  see  and  judge  for 
yourself."  You  did  so.  "  Having  seen  the  last  man  re-embarked, 
you  proceeded  before  day  to  Burlington."  Here  permit  me  to  correct 
you,  because  there  is  no  circumstance  better  ascertained,  than  that 
many  of  the  men  were  not  brought  back  till  eight  o'clock  the  next 
morning. 

Your  motives  for  going  to  Burlington  that  night,  were  then  thought 
a  mystery;  'tis  now  no  longer  so;  and  the  "  other  circumstances," 
that  permitted  you  to  join  us  again  at  Bristol,  are  now  clearly  ac 
counted  for.  General  Washington's  success  or  defeat  was,  no  doubt, 
to  determine  whether  you  were  to  remain  a  citizen  of  the  United 
States  of  America,  or  to  be  a  shameful  deserter  of  your  country. 

You  say,  you  went  to  Philadelphia,  at  my  request,  to  confer  with 
Gen.  Putnam  ;  that  you  set  out  in  the  evening,  (the  24th  December,) 
and  reached  Philadelphia  about  midnight;  but  what  credit,  can  you 
reasonably  expect,  will  be  given  to  your  "  detail  of  proceedings,"  in 
other  particulars,  when  you  find  yourself  detected  in  such  gross  con 
tradictions  in  the  following  instance  ? 

In  the  17th  page  you  say,  "  Upon  conference  with  General  Putnam, 
(at  Philadelphia,)  he  represented  the  state  of  the  militia,  the  general 
confusion  which  prevailed,  his  apprehensions  of  an  insurrection  in  the 
city  in  his  absence,  and  many  other  circumstances,  in  such  strong 
terms,  as  convinced  me,  no  assistance  could  be  derived  from  him ;" 
and  yet,  in  your  letter  to  me,  dated  Philadelphia,  25th  December, 
1776,  11  o'clock,  you  say;  "General  Putnam  has  determined  to 
cross  the  river,  with  as  many  men  as  he  can  collect,  which,  he  says, 
will  be  about  five  hundred;  he  is  now  mustering  them,  and  endeavour 
ing  to  get  Proctor's  company  of  artillery  to  go  with  them.  I  wait  to 

the  night  is  favourable,  to  cross  the  river,  and  make  the  attack  on  Trenton  in  the 
morning.   If  you  can  do  nothing  real,  at  least  create  as  great  a  diversion  as  possible. 
I  am,  sir,  your  most  obedient  servant, 

GEO.  WASHINGTON. 


44 

know  what  success  he  meets  with,  and  the  progress  he  makes;  but, 
at  all  events,  I  shall  be  with  you  this  afternoon." 

Here  the  representation  stated  in  your  pamphlet  is  contradicted  by 
a  letter  in  your  own  handwriting.  Having  forgot,  perhaps,  that  you 
had  written  such  a  letter,  your  ingenuity  furnished  materials  for  a 
plausible  narrative,  suitable  to  your  purposes ;  not  suspecting  that 
such  proof  could  be  adduced  in  opposition  to  it. 

Having  returned  to  Bristol  about  daylight  on  the  26th  December, 
with  the  greater  part  of  the  troops,  I  received  an  account,  about  11 
o'clock,  A.  M.,  from  a  person  just  arrived  from  Trenton  Ferry,  that 
General  Washington  had  succeeded  in  his  attack.  I  immediately 
despatched  a  messenger  with  a  line  to  General  Ewing,  for  information, 
but  all  I  could  learn  was,  that  the  victory  was  ours. 

From  the  continuance  of  the  rain  arid  wind,  I  concluded  the  ice 
must  be  destroyed  in  the  course  of  the  day,  and  instantly  sent  down 
to  Dunk's  Ferry  for  the  boats.  This  being  an  extraordinary  service, 
required  of  men  who  had  been  exposed  to  the  storm  the  whole  night, 
was,  however,  cheerfully  undertaken  and  executed.  I  then  consulted 
Col.  Hitchcock,  who  commanded  the  New  England  brigade,  to  know 
whether  his  troops  would  willingly  accompany  us  to  New  Jersey,  as  I 
had  determined  to  cross  the  river  in  the  morning,  if  practicable,  to  co 
operate  with  General  Washington.  He  informed  me,  that  his  troops 
could  not  march,  unless  they  could  be  supplied  with  shoes,  stockings 
and  breeches  ;  upon  which  I  instantly  wrote  to  the  Council  of  Safety, 
and  obtained  seven  hundred  pairs  of  each  of  the  above  articles,  which 
arrived  about  sunrise  on  the  morning  of  the  27th  December.  This 
second  attempt  being  determined  on,  I  went  with  several  officers,  in 
the  afternoon  of  the  26th,  to  fix  upon  a  proper  place  for  crossing  the 
river  above  Bristol,  and  the  next  morning  before  day  viewed  the 
Jersey  Shore  in  a  barge,  for  the  same  purpose.  By  your  relation,  one 
would  imagine  you  had  been  the  life  and  soul  of  this  second  movement 
across  the  Delaware, — as  little  privy  to  it  as  the  emperor  of  Morocco, 
— but  it  is  no  unusual  thing  for  you  to  intercept  the  praise  due  to 
others  of  creditable  actions.  Instead  of  being  present  to  confirm  my 
proposed  movements,  by  your  advice,  you  remained  at  Burlington, 
"  in  a  kind  of  concealment,  till  the  weather  and  OTHER  CIRCUMSTAN 
CES  permitted  you  to  join  us  at  Bristol,"  after  all  our  resolutions  were 
taken,  and  the  most  of  our  arrangements  made.  In  the  tissue  of  your 
representations,  it  is  your  purpose  to  insinuate  my  deficiency  in  mili 
tary  conduct  in  the  subsequent  transactions.  Let  my  relation  of  it 
be  heard  ! 

We  marched  on  the  27th,  in  the  morning,  and  the  ice  being  by  this 
time  chiefly  destroyed,  we  met  with  little  obstruction  in  passing.  The 
last  division  of  the  troops  being  embarked;  and  then  crossing,  we  re- 


45 

ceived  private  information,  that  General  Washington  had  re-crossed 
the  river,  and  returned  to  Newtown,  in  Pennsylvania,  from  whence 
he  dates  his  letter,  27th  December,  1776,  informing  me  of  the  par 
ticulars  of  the  action  at  Trenton,  and  which  was  not  received,  contrary 
to  your  assertion,  till  wo  had  marched  above  a  mile  on  our  way  to 
Burlington;  it  was  then  read  to  the  troops,  who  were  halted  for  this 
purpose.  We  had,  however,  before  given  full  credit  to  the  first  infor 
mation  of  his  having  re-crossed;  on  which  previous  information  I 
called  together  the  field  officers,  to  consult  what  was  then  best  to  be 
done.  From  this  circumstance,  Col.  Hitchcock,  and  some  others, 
proposed  returning  to  Bristol.  I  instantly  declared  my  determination 
against  it,  and  recommended  an  attack  upon  Mount  Holly,  as  from 
the  information  we  had  of  the  force  at  that  post,  we  might  easily 
carry  it,  and  should  then  have  a  retreat  open  towards  Philadelphia, 
if  necessary.  You  then,  "  as  a  middle  course,"  advised  our  going  to 
Burlington  ;  in  which  those  who  had  at  first  proposed  our  return, 
joined  in  opinion.  This  was  the  true  cause  of  that  hesitation  you 
remarked  with  respect  to  me.  Burlington  was  in  a  position,  in  my 
judgment,  very  dangerous ;  as  in  case  we  should  be  invested  there, 
and  the  river  impassable,  we  should  be  forced  to  submit  at  discretion, 
for  want  of  provisions,  or  hazard  an  action  against  troops  superior  in 
discipline,  and  perhaps  in  number,  if  their  whole  force  was  collected 
to  that  point.  Having  no  other  retreat  open  to  us,  but  that  over  the 
river,  it  was  evident  this  could  not  be  effected  without  the  loss,  at 
least,  of  those  who  might  be  ordered  to  cover  the  retreat.  Having 
passed  the  river  in  open  day,  it  was  probable  the  enemy  might  be  in 
formed  of  it;  and,  in  that  case,  the  post  at  Mount  Holly  reinforced. 
To  determine  whether  we  should  take  a  position,  unanimously  ap 
proved  by  the  council,  but  which  I  thought  extremely  dangerous ;  or 
adhere  to  my  own  plan,  unsupported  by  a  single  voice,  was  certainly 
a  question  that  required  more  than  a  momentary  consideration,  even 
for  an  officer,  at  this  stage  of  the  war.  Being  pressed  for  some  reso 
lution,  as  the  day  was  far  spent,  I  waived  my  own  opinion,  and 
acquiesced  in  the  desire  of  marching  to  Burlington;  but  it  is  ridicu 
lous  to  suppose,  as  you  say,  that  your  brother's  intelligence  of  Count 
Donop's  retreat,  could  have  influenced  my  acquiescence,  for  it  did  not 
arrive  till  after  our  resolutions  were  taken, — and  besides,  was  not 
credited ;  because  if  it  had  reached  us  before,  and  been  credited,  I 
should  not  have  acquiesced  in  such  desire ;  if  even  after,  I  should 
naturally  have  taken  another  course,  and  pursued  the  flying  enemy, 
instead  of  going  to  Burlington,  which  was  five  miles  in  the  rear. 

Late  that  night,  I  received  certain  information,  that  the  enemy 
had  evacuated  all  their  posts  in  the  neighborhood,  and  immediately 
despatched  a  messenger  to  General  Washington  with  the  intelligence; 


46 

in  answer  to  which,  I  received  his  orders,  very  early  next  morning, 
to  pursue  and  keep  up  the  panic,  and  that  he  would  cross  at  Trenton 
that  day.  From  this  circumstance,  it  appears  that  the  General  had 
taken  his  determination  before  your  pretended  information  or  advice 
from  Trenton  could  have  reached  him. 

Iu  justification  to  myself,  I  have  thought  it  necessary  to  point  out 
your  false  state  of  facts,  in  these  particulars  j  the  multitude  of  lesser 
ones,  relating  to  military  matters,  I  shall  pass  over,  as  this  publica 
tion  is  already  necessarily  lengthened  beyond  my  first  intention. 

As  I  hinted,  in  my  letter  of  10th  September  last,  that  "  charges  of 
the  same  nature  had  been,  some  time  since,  made  against  you,"  by 
Arnold ;  you  say,  you  "  allow  full  weight  to  so  respectable  a  con 
nexion  and  testimony ;"  to  which  you  made  no  reply,  though  from 
the  rank  and  character  of  Arnold  at  that  time,  they  merited  your 
notice.  Arnold  having  received  his  information  from  me,  it  cannot 
be  concluded,  that  I  meant  by  his  testimony  to  strengthen  my  own 
assertion ;  but  merely  to  show,  that  having  before  been  charged,  you 
did  not  reply ;  from  which  many  believed  it  true.  And  when  he 
apologized  to  me  for  inserting  it  in  his  defence  without  my  per 
mission,  I  remarked,  that  an  apology  was  unnecessary,  from  the 
public  manner  in  which  I  had  mentioned  it. 

Arnold  was  commanding  officer  in  this  city,  very  generally  visited 
by  officers  of  the  army,  citizens  and  strangers.  I  received  the  usual 
civilities  from  him,  and  returned  them ;  and  often  met  him  at  the 
tables  of  gentlemen  in  the  city.  To  my  civilities,  at  that  time,  I 
thought  him  entitled  from  the  signal  services  he  had  rendered  his 
country ;  services  infinitely  superior  to  those  you  so  much  boast 
of;  he  stood  high,  as  a  military  character,  even  in  France,  and  after 
your  prosecution,  he  was  continued  in  command  by  Congress ;  ap 
pointed  first,  by  the  commander-in-chief,  to  the  command  of  the  left 
wing  of  the  army,  and  afterwards  to  that  important  post  of  \Yest 
Point,  where  his  treacherous  conduct  exceeded,  I  fancy,  even  your 
own  idea  of  his  baseness.  To  what,  then,  do  your  insinuations 
amount  ?  They  cannot  criminate  me,  without  an  implied  censure  on 
Congress  and  the  commander-in-chief.  But  why  contaminate  my 
name,  by  connecting  it,  in  this  instance,  with  such  a  wretch  ?  when 
you,  yourself,  at  his  trial,  with  a  half-shamed  face,  seemed  to  apologize 
for  being  his  prosecutor,  and  became  his  fulsome  panegyrist.  It  con 
sisted,  however,  with  that  artifice  and  cunning  which  has  ever  been 
the  sum  of  your  abilities,  and  the  whole  amount  of  your  wisdom. 

Your  remarks  on  my  letter  of  the  10th  December,  1777,  are  so 
inconsistent,  that  I  shall  bestow  a  few  observations  on  them.  "  So 
strong  and  virulent,"  you  say,  "  was  my  antipathy  to  the  constitu 
tion,  and  such  my  enmity  to  those  who  administered  it,  that  you 


47 

believe  I  would  have  preferred  any  government  to  that  of  Pennsyl 
vania,  if  my  person  and  property  would  have  been  equally  secure  ;" 
and  yet  it  seems,  in  the  next  sentence  you  say,  "  but  it  was  our  lot 
to  meet  again,  a  few  days  before  the  battle  of  Monmouth ;  here  we 
were  again  united  in  confidence  and  danger."  If  you  really  thought 
I  would  prefer  any  government  to  that  of  Pennsylvania,  why  did  you 
then  take  so  much  pains  to  show,  that  we  again  united  in  "  confi 
dence  and  danger"  at  the  battle  of  Monmouth,  so  many  months 
after  I  had  discovered  that  virulent  antipathy,  and  which  now  hath 
extorted  such  gross  reflections  ? 

You  say,  my  breast  was  burning  with  disappointed  ambition ;  but 
how  does  this  appear,  when,  immediately  upon  the  formation  of  the 
new  government,  I  was  appointed  the  first  of  three  brigadiers,  which 
created  me  commanding  officer  of  the  militia.  Could  my  ambition 
be  gratified  further  ?  But  to  obviate  every  objection,  let  me  suppose 
you  meant,  that  I  wished  to  rise  to  power  in  the  civil  line, — which, 
however,  has  never  been  insinuated  before, — let  me  here  call  to  your 
memory,  how  easy  the  task  was  for  any  character  to  rise  to  the  first 
offices  of  government.  I  confess,  I  do  not  think  so  meanly  of  myself, 
as  to  have  dreaded  any  rivalship  from  some  of  the  candidates  of  those 
days;  nor  do  I  mean,  by  this  declaration,  to  insinuate  any  extraordi 
nary  merit,  when  I  estimate  mine  by  that  of  those  I  have  alluded  to. 
I  could  not  have  consented  to  make  the  sacrifices  required  ;  but  you, 
however,  and  some  others,  as  much  opposed  to  the  essential  parts  of 
the  constitution  as  I  was,  freely  made  them,  and  broke  through 
every  obligation  of  faith  and  honour. 

The  charge  you  have  brought  against  a  party  in  the  state,  of  an 
opposition  to  its  constitution,  deserves  some  attention.  I  will  digress 
a  little  from  my  main  subject  to  examine  how  far  this  charge  is  true, 
and  how  far  the  thing  is  in  itself  criminal. 

Government  is  generally  so  reverenced  among  men,  that  those  who 
attempt  to  subvert  any  system  of  it  whatever,  have  to  contend 
against  a  very  natural  prejudice.  But  this  prejudice  can  only  be  in 
degree  with  the  antiquity  of  its  establishment ;  for  modern  error, 
how  high  soever  its  authority,  has  but  little  claim  to  our  veneration. 
This  concession  made,  could  it  be  expected  that  our  novel  constitu 
tion,  liable  at  first  blush  to  so  many  important  objections,  should  not 
have  its  opponents ;  but  that  in  a  moment  it  should  be  submitted  to, 
as  implicitly  as  if  it  had  had  the  sanction  of  ages  ?  What  circum 
stance  was  there,  in  the  production  of  this  whimsical  machine,  that 
should  silence,  at  once,  all  the  remonstrances  of  reason  and  sense 
against  it  ?  Was  it  not  worth  a  pause  to  examine,  whether  this 
coat,  wove  for  ages,  would  fit  us  or  our  posterity  before  we  put  on  ;  or 
whether  this  gift  of  our  convention  would  not  prove  our  destruction  ? 


48 

From  an  apprehension  that  it  would,  an  opposition  was  formed,  that 
included  a  majority  of  the  state.  Did  those  who  composed  it,  think 
it  criminal  to  prevent  the  singular  ideas  of  a  convention,  from  being 
carried  into  execution,  against  an  almost  general  sentiment;  or  did 
they  not  rather  conceive  it  safe  and  better  for  the  community  still  to 
go  on  in  the  administration  of  governmental  affairs  by  those  tempo 
rary  expedients  we  had  been  in  the  habits  of,  until  their  constitution 
could  be  revised  ? 

This  idea,  patriotic  as  it  was,  was  defeated  by  the  obstinate 
enthusiasm  of  some,  who  trembled  for  this  New  Jerusalem  of  their 
hopes,  and  by  the  scandalous  desertion  of  others,  and  especially 
yourself.  The  ends  of  opposition  being  thus  rendered  unattainable, 
but  at  the  hazard  of  convulsions,  that  might  endanger  the  great 
American  cause,  the  same  virtue  that  began  it,  ended  it,  and  it  has 
long  since  ceased  to  act. 

This  is  a  well-known  state  of  facts  ;  but  what  it  did  not  suit  with 
your  own  by-purposes  to  admit,  could  not  be  expected  from  your 
integrity ;  you  have,  therefore,  constantly  kept  up  the  alarm  of  a 
constitutional  opposition,  and,  on  every  occasion,  referred  to  this 
false  cause,  that  honest  and  useful  opposition  which  was  created  by 
your  weak,  though  violent  and  tyrannical  administration. 

That  you  was  called  to  the  chair  of  government,  by  the  unanimous 
vote  of  council  and  assembly,  you  have  often  boasted,  with  a  view  of 
conveying  to  the  world  an  idea,  that  even  the  gentlemen  opposed  to 
the  constitution  approved  the  choice.  But  they  neither  esteemed 
you  as  a  gentleman,  nor  approved  your  public  conduct.  They  knew 
there  was  a  majority  in  assembly  in  favour  of  your  election,  and  as 
their  grand  object  was  the  obtaining  a  resolution  of  that  body, 
recommending  the  calling  a  convention  for  revising  the  constitution, 
some  of  the  party  entered  into  an  engagement  for  this  purpose,  and 
your  election  was  negotiated.  Yon  were  to  use  your  endeavours  to 
prevail  on  the  Council  to  enforce  the  recommendation  o^f  the  assembly 
by  a  similar  resolution.  From  your  own  acknowledgment  at  the 
City  Tavern,  the  resolution  of  the  Council  was  never  obtained,  or 
even  moved  for,  by  you,  and  for  this  flimsy  reason,  that  no  formal 
information,  of  such  resolution  having  passed,  had  been  communi 
cated  to  you ;  though  known  to  all  the  world  ;  and  that  it  could  not 
be  expected  that  Council  would  "  tag"  after  the  assembly,  in  a 
measure  relating  to  the  public.  Yet  you  had  the  effrontery  to  assert, 
that  "every  engagement  on  your  part,"  was  strictly  performed, 

At  this  meeting,  you  say,  you  "  in  the  most  open  manner  called 
upon  us,  to  support  our  imputations,  and  that  you  so  effectually  vin 
dicated  every  part  of  your  conduct,  that  every  gentleman,  (myself 
excepted,)  acknowledged  his  mistake."  I  own  I  made  no  con- 


49 

cessions,  and  if  the  reasons  I  then  gave  are  not  thought  a  sufficient 
justification  to  the  world,  of  the  opinion  I  had  formed,  I  am  content 
to  admit  that  it  was  not  only  "  singular,"  but  «  absurd." 

After  a  reasonable  pause,  I  remarked,  that  from  the  repeated  con 
versations  I  had  had  with  you,  on  this  subject,  you  appeared  to  me 
as  much  opposed  as  I  was,  to  the  constitution,  before  the  evacuation 
of  the  city  ;  that  you  had  refused  to  accept  the  appointment  of  Chief 
Justice,  (because  you  could  not  in  conscience  take  the  oath  ;*)  that  a 

*  The  following  extracts  from  General  Reed's  letter  to  his  Excellency  the 
President  and  the  Honorable  the  Executive  Council  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania, 
dated  Philadelphia,  22d  July,  1777,  assigning  his  reasons  for  not  accepting  the 
office  of  Chief  Justice,  may  serve  to  prove  his  opinions  of  the  constitution  at  that 
time.  "If  there  is  any  radical  weakness  of  authority  proceeding  from  the  Con 
stitution  ;  if  in  any  respects  it  opposes  the  genius,  temper  or  habits  of  the  governed. 
I  fear,  unless  a  remedy  can  be  provided,  in  lees  than  seven  years,  government  will  tinJr 
in  a  spiritless  langour,  or  expire  in  a  sudden  CONVULSION.  It  would  be  foreign  to 
my  present  purpose  to  suggest  any  of  those  alterations,  which,  in  my  apprehension 
are  necessary  to  enable  the  constitution  to  support  itself  with  dignity  and  efficiency, 
and  its  friends  with  security.  That  some  are  necessary  I  cannot  entertain  the  least 
doubt.  With  this  sentiment,  I  feel  an  insuperable  difficulty  to  enter  into  an  en 
gagement  of  the  most  solemn  nature,  leading  to  the  support  and  confirmation  of  an 
entire  system  of  government,  which  I  cannot  wholly  approve."  Again,  "  the 
dispensation  from  this  engagement,f  first  allowed  to  several  members  of  the 
Assembly,  and  afterwards  to  the  militia  officers,  has  added  to  my  difficulties,  as  I 
cannot  reconcile  it  to  my  ideas  of  propriety,  the  members  of  the  same  state  being 
under  different  obligations  to  support  and  enforce  its  authority."  But  he  adds. 
"If  the  sense  of  the  people  who  have  the  right  of  decision,  leads  to  some  altera 
tions,  I  firmly  believe  it  will  conduce  to  our  happiness  and  security  ;  if  otherwise, 
I  shall  esteem  it  my  duty,  not  only  to  acquiesce,  but  to  support  as  far  as  lays  in 
my  power,  a  form  of  government  confirmed  and  sanctified  by  the  voice  of  the 
people."  Here,  then,  he  says,  "  he  feels  an  insuperable  difficulty  to  enter  into  an 
engagement  of  the  most  solemn  nature,  leading  to  the  support  and  confirmation  of  an 
entire  system  of  government,  which  he  cannot  wholly  approve  ;  but  he  shall 
think  it  his  duty  to  acquiesce,  and  support  the  government, — if  confirmed  and 
sanctified  by  the  voice  of  the  people."  How  inconsistent,  then,  must  his  conduct 
appear,  when  it  is  notorious,  that  he  took  a  decided  part  in  support  of  government, 
accepted  of  his  seat  in  Council,  and  afterwards  the  Presidency,  long  before  the 
sense  of  the  people  was  expressd  by  the  fabricated  instructions  to  the  members  of 
Assembly,  requiring  them  to  rescind  the  resolution  for  calling  a  convention  for  the 
purpose  of  revising  the  constitution.  And  yet  he  says,  in  the  27th  page  of  his 
pamphlet,  he  "  so  effectually  vindicated  every  part  of  his  conduct,  that  every 
gentleman  present,  (myself  excepted,)  acknowledged  his  mistake." 

These  were  the  ostensible  reasons  for  not  accepting  the  Chief  Justiceship,  and 

•f  By  the  "dispensation  from  this  engagement,''    above  mentioned,  is  meant,  that 
the  oath  prescribed  by  the  constitution  was  dispensed   icith,  and  many  members  of 
Assembly  were  permitted  to  take  another  oatht  in  tchich  they  were  not  bound  to  sup 
port  the  constitution. 


50 

short  time  before  the  election,  in  1778,  you  engaged  yourself  to  the 
constitutional  party,  to  serve  in  Council  for  the  County,  and  to  the 
party  in  the  opposition,  to  serve  in  Assembly  for  the  City;  and 
being  chosen  in  both  instances,  you  hesitated  above  six  weeks,  (though 
often  pressed  to  a  resolution,)  before  you  determined  to  accept  your 
seat  in  Council ; — depriving,  during  this  time,  the  City  of  a  vote  in 
Assembly,  while  an  important  point  was  debated  concerning  the  con 
tested  Chester  election  ;  and  voluntarily  advocating  the  question  in 
favor  of  the  constitutional  party  ;  that  on  the  fate  of  this  trial  depend 
ed  your  hopes  of  succeeding  to  the  President's  chair  ;  that  a'  determi 
nation  in  favour  of  that  party  gave  them  a  decided  majority,  and  that 
you  instantly  accepted  your  seat  in  Council. — To  which  you  replied, 
and  in  recapitulating  my  arguments,  endeavoured  to  justify  your 
conduct  •  but  conscious  of  having  failed  in  the  capital  points,  you 
closed  your  remarks  with  some  warm  expressions,  which  conveyed  the 
idea  of  a  threat;  of  which  I  desired  an  explanation.  After  working 
up  your  passions  to  a  degree  little  short  of  frenzy,  you  expressed  your 
self  in  the  following  terms  :  I  mean  this, — "  If  the  publications  tra 
ducing  my  public  and  private  character  are  continued,  I  mean  to  apply 
to  the  law;  but  if  this  will  not  do  me  that  justice,  which  in  some 
instances  it  cannot  do, — I  know  I  have  the  affections  and  command  of 
the  fighting  men  of  this  state  ;  and  if  necessary,  I  will  make  use  of 
that  influence,  and  call  forth  that  force, — and  if  bloodshed  should  be 
the  consequence  be  it  on  your  own  heads." 

Such  violent  and  unwarrantable  expressions  from  the  first  magistrate 

taking  the  oath  of  office;  but  an  oath  of  another  kind,  no  doubt,  induced  him  to 
decline  this  appointment.  He  had  not  taken  the  oath  of  allegiance  which  the  law, 
(passed  the  13th  June,  1777,)  required  of  every  male  white  inhabitant;  nor  did  he 
take  it,  as  appears  by  the  publication  signed  Sidney,  in  the  Pennsylvania  Journal, 
No.  1565,  12th  February,  1783,)  till  the  9th  of  October,  1778,  which  was  the 
very  day  he  was  elected  a  Councillor  for  the  County  of  Philadelphia.  And  though 
disfranchised  of  all  the  rights  of  citizenship,  and  incapable  of  being  elected  into, 
or  serving  in  any  office,  place,  or  trust,  in  this  commonwealth,  Mr.  Reed  dared  to 
disregard  the  voice  of  the  people,  and  violate  the  law,  by  accepting  the  Presidency, 
and  exercising  the  powers  of  government  annexed  to  that  office.  If  he  had  taken 
the  oath  of  allegiance,  agreeable  to  law,  why  did  he  take  it  again,  on  the  day  he 
was  elected  a  councillor  ?  as  the  mere  oath  of  office  only,  upon  that  occasion, 
would  have  been  required  of  him. 

As  Mr.  Reed  has  not  touched  this  point  in  his  pamphlet,  or  furnished  his 
friends  with  a  single  argument  to  defend  him,  against  a  charge  supported  by  au 
thentic  proofs  from  public  records,  the  public  have  very  justly  pronounced  him 
guilty.  If  certificates  can  be  produced  of  his  oaths  of  abjuration  and  allegiance, 
agreeable  to  law,  why  have  they  not  been  published?  If  he  is  not  defranchised 
of  the  rights  of  citizenship,  why  was  his  vote  refused  at  the  last  election  ?  or  is 
this  one  of  the  subjects  reserved  for  "legal  examination?"  and  if  so,  why  does  he 
not  suspend  the  public  opinion  by  such  information? 


51 

of  the  state,  and  in  the  presence  of  the  whole  bench  of  justices,  created 
the  highest  indignation,  and  were  severely  reprobated  by  several 
gentlemen  present;  which  induced  you  afterwards  to  endeavour  to 
soften  your  expressions  and  meaning. 

But  if  it  was  singular  or  absurd,  "  to  expect  a  President  of  the 
State  to  enter  into  the  violence  of  party  on  my  side  of  the  question," 
let  me  oppose  to  this,  the  treachery  of  your  conduct  in  deserting  the 
party  to  which  you  was  at  first  from  ("conscientious"  principles) 
attached,  and  yet,  as  President,  enter  into  all  the  violence  of  party  on 
the  other  side  of  the  question . 

Again,  "  upon  our  return  to  Philadelphia/'  you  say,  "  I  became 
the  open  and  avowed  patron  of  those  who  are  distinguished  by  the 
appellation  of  tories  j  and  ray  decisive  attachment  to  the  British 
Army,*  and  their  adherents,  "  has  marked  every  subsequent  period 
of  my  life,  too  plainly  to  admit  of  doubt  or  denial/'  If  you  really 
entertained  such  sentiments,  why  did  you,  in  the  month  of  February, 
(after  my  marriage,)  waiving  the  indignity  offered  to  you  in  not  paying 

*  That  this  opinion  was  not  entertained  by  Congress,  may  reasonably  be  inferred 
from  the  following  letter  : 

"  Philadelphia,  12th  September,  1778. 

"  SIR, — His  excellency,  General  Washington,  having  recommended  to  Congress 
the  appointment  of  a  General  of  horse,  the  House  took  that  subject  under  con 
sideration  the  10th  instant,  when  you  were  unanimously  elected  Brigadier  and 
commander  of  the  cavalry  in  the  service  of  the  United  States. 

"  From  the  general  view  above  mentioned,  you  will  perceive,  sir,  the  earnest 
desire  of  the  house,  that  you  will  accept  a  commission,  and  enter  as  early  as  your 
convenience  will  admit  of,  upon  the  duties  of  the  office  ;  and  I  flatter  mj'self  with 
hopes  of  congratulating  you  in  a  few  days  upon  this  occasion. 

"I  have  the  honour  to  be,  with  particular  regard  and  esteem,  sir,  your  most 
humble  servant,  HENRY  LAURENS, 

"  The  Hon.  Brigadier-General  Cadwalader.  "  President  of  Congress," 

But  not  wishing  to  have  it  suggested,  that  I  entered  into  the  service  at  so  late  a 
period  of  the  war  for  the  sake  of  rank,  as  the  French  treaty  had  taken  place,  and 
I  had  conceived  all  offensive  operations  at  an  end,  I  declined  the  appointment  in 
these  terms. 

Maryland,  l$tli  September,   1778. 

SIR, — I  have  the  highest  sense  of  the  honour  conferred  upon  me  by  Congress,  in 
appointing  me  a  Brigadier  in  the  Continental  service,  with  the  command  of  the 
cavalry,  more  particularly  as  the  voice  of  Congress  was  unanimous. 

I  cannot  consent  to  enter  into  the  service  at  this  time,  as  the  war  appears  to  me 
to  be  near  the  close.  But  should  any  misfortune  give  an  unhappy  turn  to  our 
.affairs,  I  shall  immediately  apply  to  Congress  for  a  command  in  the  army. 

I  have  the  honour  to  be,  with  the  greatest  regard  and  esteem,  your  excellency's 
most  obedient  humble  servant,  JOHN  CADWALADER. 

His  Excellency  Henry  Laurens,  Esq.,  President  of  Congress. 


52 

the  usual  compliments  of  congratulation,  upon  your  appointment,  pay 
me  the  first  visit,  and  thereby  make  advances  towards  a  reconciliation  ? 
Such  a  condescension,  so  contrary  to  the  usual  forms,  can  scarcely  be 
reconciled  even  to  a  character  like  yours. 

Men  who  acquire  popularity  by  means  disgraceful  to  a  gentleman, 
dare  not  hazard  a  sentiment  that  is  not  approved  by  the  party  with 
which  he  is  connected.  I  have,  on  all  occasions,  and  in  all  companies, 
private  and  public,  delivered  freely  my  political  opinions  j  nor  has  the 
dread  of  losing  the  little  popularity  I  possessed  in  Pennsylvania,  ever 
induced  me  to  make  a  sacrifice  of  my  honour,  by  adopting  opinions  or 
measures  which  I  disapproved,  or  thought  injurious  to  my  country. 
Esteeming  it  the  highest  honour  to  deserve  the  approbation  of  my 
fellow-citizens,  I  have  ever  been  solicitous  to  obtain  it.  You  and  some 
others  have  industriously  propagated  reports  for  the  purpose  of  in 
juring  my  reputation  ;  but  conscious  that  my  political  opinions  and 
conduct  will  stand  the  test,  upon  the  nicest  scrutiny,  and  having 
never  experienced  any  diminution  of  that  esteem,  respect  and  warmth 
of  friendship,  which  my  fellow-citizens  have  ever  shown  towards  me, 
a  refutation  of  such  calumny  is  utterly  needless. 

From  the  whole  of  what  I  have  here  laid  before  the  public,  sup 
ported  by  the  testimony  of  the  most  respectable  witnesses,  the  follow 
ing  conclusions  may  fairly  be  deduced  : 

1.  That  the  conversation  alluded  to,  which  I  have  asserted  to  have 
passed  between  us  at  Bristol,  was  mentioned  by  me  in  confidence  to 
Col.  Hamilton  and  some  others  of  General  Washington's  family,  in 
the  year  1777;  and  therefore  could  not  have  originated  at  the  time, 
you  mention,  or  to  gratify  my  resentment  against  you,  as  at  that  time, 
you  acknowledge,  no  parties  subsisted. 

-.  It  could  not  have  been  invented  to  gratify  my  resentment  for  the 
attempt  you  made  to  evade  the  payment  of  Mr.  Porter's  order ; 
because  I  did  not  make  it  public  at  the  time,  nor  till  several  years 
afterwards,  and  you  acknowledge,  all  that  coolness  was  done  away, 
and  our  former  habits  of  friendship  restored. 

As  is  appears,  by  Mr.  Clymer's  testimony,  that  I  mentioned  it 
publicly  at  Mr.  Hamilton's  trial,  which  was  before  you  were  elected 
President  of  the  state,  it  ought  to  be  imputed  to  another  cause  than 
that  which  you  have  assigned. 

4.  As  it  appears,  from  Mr.  Pryor's  testimony,  that  I  mentioned  it 
at  the  Coffee  House,  in  the  hearing  of  some  of  your  friends,  we  may 
reasonably  conclude  you  were  informed  of  it;  and  this  conclusion  is 
strengthened   by  your  passing  over  unnoticed,  the  information   con 
tained  in  Major  Lennox's  testimony,  which   was  related  to  you   by 
Major  Thomas  Moore. 

5.  It  cannot  appear  improbable  that  you  should  have   held   this 


53 

conversation  with  me,  as  your  expressions  to  Gen.  Dickinson,  Col. 
Nixon,  and  Doctor  Rush,  convey  sentiments  equally  injurious  to 
your  reputation  as  a  patriot  and  Adjutant  General  of  the  army. 

6.  As  it  fully  appears,  by  the  testimony  of  Col.  Ellis  and  Mr. 
Davenport,  and  that  of  Col.  Bradford,  that  you  had  communicated 
such  sentiments  to  your  brother-in-law,  Mr.  Pettit,  and  to  Col. 
Bayard,  contrary  to  your  declaration,  we  may  with  propriety  assert 
that  you  have  forfeited  that  veracity,  which  is  essential  to  the 
character  of  a  gentleman. 

Lastly,  from  the  testimony  of  Major  Lennox  and  Col.  Nichols,  it 
appears  that  you  absolutly  applied  to  Count  Donop  for  protection, 
and  that  a  particular  and  intimate  friend  of  yours  was  included  in  it ; 
and  therefore,  from  this  and  the  foregoing  testimony,  all  pointing  to 
the  same  object  and  to  the  same  period,  supporting  and  confirming 
each  other,  it  cannot  leave  the  least  room  to  doubt  the  truth  of  my 
assertion. 

In  some  instances,  a  man's  general  good  conduct  has  had  great 
weight  to  invalidate  or  weaken  charges  highly  criminal;  but  un 
fortunately,  yours  can  receive  no  aid  from  such  circumstances.  Dis 
simulation  and  cunning  have  for  a  time  deceived  the  most  discerning, 
but  the  snares  you  have  laid  for  others  will  most  probably  accomplish 
your  own  destruction. 

Having  long  since  known  how  to  estimate  your  character,  I  have 
not  any  where  pretended,  in  this  performance,  to  fix  it  at  a  higher 
value  than  what  it  generally  passes  current  for ;  you  have,  since  the 
term  of  your  administration,  repeatedly  put  yourself  upon  your 
country.  Your  name  has  been  offered  to  the  people  for  a  seat  in  the 
legislature ;  to  the  legislature,  for  a  seat  in  Congress ;  to  Congress, 
for  posts  of  Continental  trust;  but  that  name,  its  counterfeit  gilding 
at  length  rubbed  off,  and  the  native  colour  of  the  contexture  exposed, 
has  depreciated,  like  the  Continental  money,  with  such  velocity,  that 
though  a  few  years  ago  worth  a  President's  chair,  it  would  not,  now 
purchase  a  constable's  staff;  nor  is  it  more  highly  rated  in  the 
sphere  of  polite  life,  than  in  the  great  theatre  of  the  world  ;  for  its 
unfortunate  owner  stands  alone,  unnoticed  in  the  midst  of  company, 
with  full  leisure  to  reflect  on  the  sensible  effects  of  the  loss  of 
reputation. 

My  immediate  purpose  requires  nothing  further  from  me ;  but 
your  administration,  the  theme  of  your  own  solitary  praise,  might 
not  improperly  have  been  touched  upon,  but  that  it  is  a  field  too 
extensive  for  me,  and  that  I  have  not  asperity  enough  in  my  nature 
to  do  justice  to  the  subject.  I  will  yet  observe  upon  some  matters 
in  your  pamphlet,  not  in  direct  connexion  with  one  or  the  other 
subject;  but  which  are  extremly  demonstrative  of  a  temper  in  the 


54 

writer  to  wish  evil  to  the  community,  after  the  power  of  doing  it  has 
ceased. 

You,  who  have  ever  been  a  rapacious  lawyer,  and  have  never 
omitted  any  means  of  amassing  a  fortune,  have,  with  a  truly  consis 
tent  spirit,  shown  an  implacable  enmity  to  all  those  who  are  raised 
to  a  condition  above  want  and  dependence.  And  though  you  kick 
against  the  parallel  drawn  between  you  and  the  Cataline  of  antiquity, 
you  have  in  this  point  proved  its  exactness  ;  he  haranguing  in  the 
circle  of  his  conspirators,  exasperates  them  against  the  opulent 
citizens  of  Rome ;  you,  in  your  pamphlet,  labor  to  create  invidious 
distinctions,  would  pervert  the  order  of  well  regulated  society,  and 
make  fortune's  larger  gifts,  or  even  its  moderate  blessings,  criterions 
of  disqualification  for  public  trust  and  honours  in  Pennsylvania  •  and 
under  a  spacious  description  of  men,  offer  with  your  sword  to  lead 
the  indigent,  the  bankrupt,  and  the  desperate,  into  all  the  authority 
of  government.  But  in  the  shallowness  of  your  understanding,  you 
have  mistaken  the  spirit  of  the  times  \  it  will  not  countenance  or 
support  a  Cataline, 

You  would  also,  no  doubt,  as  may  be  inferred  from  your  pamphlet, 
you,  who  are  so  deficient  in  morality,  draw  your  sword  in  religious 
quarrels,  to  bring  you  once  more  into  play;  but  'tis  to  no  purpose 
you  would  raise  an  alarm,  as  a  very  great  and  respectable  part  of 
your  opponents  consist  of  persons  belonging  to  that  society,  of  which 
you  profess  yourself  to  be  a  member;  and  there  is  a  general  and 
commendable  coolness  and  indifference  for  such  quarrels,  that  will 
not  easily  take  fire  on  your  false  and  inflammatory  suggestions  ;  so 
that  whatever  you  have  catched  at  to  raise  you  from  the  earth,  has 
broke  in  your  hands  and  brought  you  again  to  the  ground. 

JOHN  CADWALADER. 


VALLEY    FORGE    LETTERS, 


AS 


PUBLISHED   IN   THE   EVENING   JOURNAL. 
1842. 


From  the  Evening  Journal. 

MR.  WHITNEY — At  this  distant  day  from  the  American  Revolu 
tion,  a  new  dawn  seems  to  be  breaking  upon  the  darkness  of  that 
period,  and  much  that  has  heretofore  been  shrouded  in  seemingly 
inscrutable  mystery,  is  beginning  to  be  made  plain  even  to  the  naked 
vision.  The  "  seventeen  trunks"  of  revolutionary  papers,  a  selection 
from  which  Colonel  Beekman,  the  grandson  and  heir  of  Gen.  George 
Clinton,  has  just  published,  in  one  of  the  New  York  papers,  must 
necessarily  contain  much  of  exceeding  value :  and  I  should  not  be 
surprised  if  the  Colonel  were  to  receive  a  visit,  at  his  place  on  Long 
Island,  from  Mr.  William  Bradford  Reed,  to  request  to  be  permitted 
to  rummage  their  contents,  and  abstract  or  destroy  any  "  document" 
that  might  likely  prove  prejudicial  to  the  fame  of  his  grandfather,  the 
late  General  Joseph  Reed.  The  Colonel  must  keep  a  sharp  look  out 
for  Mr.  Reed,  and  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  his  blandishments,  when  he 
arrives. 

Doctor  Johnson,  in  one  of  his  Lives  of  the  Poets,  makes  an  obser 
vation  strictly  applicable  to  the  claim  of  patriotism,  which,  originally 
set  up  for  himself  by  General  Reed,  has  been  perpetuated  for  him  by 
his  descendants.  Speaking  of  the  boast  a  certain  poet  was  accustomed 
to  make,  of  the  sternness  with  which  he  had  driven  back  an  ass  laden 
with  gold,  that  had  sought  to  invade  the  citadel  of  his  integrity,  the 
Doctor  remarked,  "  but  the  tale  has  too  little  evidence  to  deserve  a 
disquisition  ;  large  offers  and  sturdy  rejections  are  among  the  most 
common  topics  of  falsehood."  That  portion  of  the  quotation  which  I 
have  italicised,  fits  the  case  of  General  Reed  to  a  hair;  but  "the 
tale"  of  his  patriotism,  however  "  little  evidence"  there  may  to  sup 
port  it,  does  "  deserve  a  disquisition,"  if  only  on  account  of  the 
pertinacity  with  which  it  is  endeavoured  to  engraft  it  upon  the  public 
mind. 

I  have  already  given  the  truth  concerning  General  Reed's  famous 
reply  to  the  British  commissioners,  and  I  propose  to  follow  it  up  with 
the  publication  of  a  few  letters,  interesting  on  account  of  the  light 
which  they  shed  upon  our  revolutionary  history. 

Many  of  the  citizens  of  Philadelphia  must  remember  Mrs.  Sarah 
Kemp,  who  died  in  Race  street,  in  1820,  at  the  advanced  age  of  eighty- 
four  years.  Andrew  Kemp,  the  only  son  of  this  respectable  matron, 


58 

entered  the  American  army,  almost  at  the  very  commencement  of  the 
struggle,  and  before,  as  his  mother  has  often  informed  me,  he  had 
reached  his  majority.  As  he  shall  be  my  first  witness  against 
General  Reed,  it  is  proper  to  make  the  reader  well  acquainted  with 
him.  His  gallantry,  and  a  personal  service  which  he  had  the  good 
fortune  to  render  to  one  of  General  Washingston's  immediate  staff, 
soon  promoted  him  from  the  ranks,  and  he  fought  with  great  bravery, 
ab  the  battles  of  White  Plains,  Trenton,  Princeton,  Brandywine, 
German  town  and  Monmouth.  Sergeant  Kemp  was  one  of  the  garri 
son  of  Fort  Mercer,  under  the  command  of  Colonel  Greene,  when 
that  fortress  was  assailed  in  the  autumn  of  1777,  by  the  Hessian  troops, 
commanded  by  Colonel  Donop.  In  this  affair,  which,  though  not  one 
of  the  most  remarkable,  was  one  of  the  most  brilliant  of  the  Revolu 
tion,  Sergeant  Kemp  particularly  distinguished  himself,  and  was 
wounded  slightly  in  the  arm,  and  severely  in  the  left  thigh  by  a 
musket  ball :  at  the  subsequent  capture  of  Fort  Mercer  by  Cornwallis, 
Kemp  was  one  of  the  few  who  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy — the 
remainder  of  the  garrison  succeeding  in  safely  evacuating  the  fort. 
In  a  few  weeks,  he  managed  to  effect  his  escape  from  Howe's  winter 
quarters  at  Philadelphia,  and  immediately  joined  the  American  army 
at  Valley  Forge.  The  privations  of  that  encampment,  dreadfully 
aggravated  the  sufferings  of  poor  Kemp;  but,  after  languishing 
during  the  season  in  one  of  the  military  hospitals,  he  resumed  active 
service  in  the  spring,  and  served  in  May  under  Lafayette  at  the  affair 
of  Barren  Hill.  At  the  battle  of  Monmouth,  he  fought  with  his 
usual  intrepidity,  but  the  fatigues  of  the  engagement  renewed  the 
affection  of  his  imperfectly  healed  leg;  and,  about  three  weeks  after, 
he  was  obliged  to  submit  to  its  amputation.  Upon  leaving  the  army, 
he  received  from  General  Washington  himself  a  certificate  of  conduct 
and  character,  which  I  copy  from  the  original  before  me. 

Head  Quarters,  June  23,  1778. 

Sergeant  Andrew  Kemp  is  personally  known  to  me  as  a  brave  and 
faithful  soldier,  who  has  served  in  several  engagements,  and  who 
desires  his  discharge  only  in  consequence  of  the  loss  of  a  limb,  which 
unfits  him  for  further  service.  His  dutiful  conduct  is  reported  to  me 
to  be  equal  to  his  bravery ;  and  he  retires  from  the  army  with  rny 
good  opinion  and  that  of  all  whom  I  have  heard  speak  of  him. 

(Signed,)  G.  WASHINGTON. 

From  among  other  testimonials  to  Mr.  Kemp's  worth  and  conduct, 
which  formed  to  her  dying  day,  the  pride  and  solace  of  his  aged 
mother,  I  select  the  following,  given  by  Col.  Samuel  Smith,  the  late 


59 

Mayor  of  Baltimore,  and  the  gallant  defender  of  Fort  Mifflin  against 
the  six  days'  attacks  of  the  British. 

"  Andrew  Kemp  has  served  with  me  three  times ;  the  last  nearly 
four  months.  He  was  discharged  from  the  army  last  month,  in  con 
sequence  of  the  loss  of  his  leg  and  other  bodily  infirmities.  I  have 
always  found  his  conduct  exemplary.  He  came  to  me  with  high 
recommendations  from  officers  whom  he  had  previously  served  with, 
and  fully  realized  what  they  had  prepared  me  to  expect  from  him. 

(Signed,)  SAMUEL  SMITH. 

September  3,  1778." 

This  brave  fellow  fell  a  victim  to  his  benevolent  daring,  during  the 
prevalence  of  the  yellow  fever  in  this  city,  in  1798.  Upon  the  death 
of  his  mother,  the  certificates  of  character  which  I  have  transcribed, 
and  a  number  of  his  letters,  of  various  dates,  written  while  he  was  in 
the  army,  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  veteran,  to  whom  in  my  former 
article,  I  referred,  but  whose  name  I  am  not  yet  at  liberty  to  mention. 
From  among  them,  I  make  two  selections — the  first  a  letter  to  his 
mother,  who  then  resided  in  Chester  County. 

Camp,  June  13^,  1788. 

My  Dear  Mother, — You  must  be  very  uneasy  not  hearing  from  me 
so  long,  and  the  only  wonder  is  that  I  am  alive  to  give  any  account 
of  myself.  After  my  escape  from  Philadelphia,  last  November,  I 
wrote  to  you,  but  whether  you  received  my  letter  or  not  I  cannot  tell, 
for  I  have  never  heard  a  word  of  you  since.  We  have  had  a  dreadful 
time  of  it  through  the  winter  at  Valley  Forge.  Sometimes  for  a  week 
at  a  time  with  nothing  but  frozen  potatoes,  and  even  worse  off  still 
for  clothing ,  sometimes  the  men  obliged  to  sleep  by  turns  for  want 
of  blankets  to  cover  the  whole,  and  the  rest  keeping  watch  by  the 
fires.  There  is  hardly  a  man  whose  feet  have  not  been  frost  bitten. 
I  have  been  laid  by  nearly  the  whole  time  on  account  of  my  leg,  from 
which  I  suffered  very  much;  and  Doctor  Le  Brean  insisted  upon 
taking  it  off,  but  I  would  not  suffer  him ;  for  which  I  have  great 
reason  to  be  joyful,  for  it  is  now  nearly  as  well  as  ever,  except  a  little 
stiffness,  particularly  after  marching.  But  our  distress  from  want  of 
food  and  comfortable  raiment,  was  nothing  compared  to  the  grumbling 
of  some  of  the  men,  and  I  am  sorry  to  say,  of  some  of  the  officers.  I 
really  thought  we  should  have  a  meeting  once  or  twice;  but  we 
weathered  through  without  it.  Some  hard  things  are  said  since  about 
some  of  the  officers,  but  the  whole  talk  of  the  army  is  now  about 
General  Reed.  There  have  been  a  good  many  attempts  to  conceal  it 
from  the  men,  but  it  has  pretty  much  leaked  out.  This  spring,  it 
seems,  King  George  sent  over  some  Commissioners,  as  they  call  them, 


60 

to  endeavour  to  make  a  peace  with  us ;  and  it  turns  out  that  General 
Reed  has  been  in  secret  correspondence  with  them  all  the  time,  and 
was  offered  large  amounts  to  play  into  their  hands ;  but  the  bargain 
was  broken  off  by  his  wanting  more  than  they  were  willing  to  give. 
I  know  this  much  for  certain ;  that  one  of  their  letters  was  taken  to 
General  Washington,  and  that  the  men  were  all  called  up  at  the  dead 
of  night,  by  beat  of  drum,  and  most  of  the  officers  called  to  Head 
Quarters.  In  the  morning,  General  Reed  was  placed  under  guard, 
but  released  in  about  two  hours.  The  letter  was  from  one  of  the 
British  Commissioners,  in  answer  to  one  of  his — he  gave  some  expia 
tion,  but  it  did  not  satisfy  the  General,  but  he  was  obliged  to  accept 
it,  as  the  contrary  could  not  be  proved.  I  heard  Captain  Anderson 
tell  Dr.  Le  Brean,  that  General  Washington  was  fully  satisfied  that 
Reed  had  been  on  the  very  point  of  betraying  us  all  to  the  British, 
but  that  it  could  not  be  fully  proved ;  and  at  such  a  time,  it  was 
better  to  keep  a  strict  eye  upon  him,  without  getting  the  army  into 
disgrace  by  exposure. 

"  Near  the  last  of  May,  we  had  a  smart  little  affair  with  the  British 
at  Barren  Hill ;  it  was  the  first  time  I  was  under  marching  orders 
since  I  left  the  hospital.  The  British  army  came  very  near  sur 
prising  us  after  night — two  of  the  sentinels  of  the  picket  guard 
having  fallen  asleep  on  their  posts.  But  we  managed  to  get  across 
the  river  again  with  very  little  loss,  only  eight  men  killed  and 
wounded,  and  three  prisoners.  I  made  a  narrow  escape,  for  I  heard 
a  bullet  whistling  by  my  ear  as  close  as  it  could,  without  hitting. 
All  well  at  home,  I  hope.  Tell  Sally  not  to  forget  to  knit  me  a 
supply  of  woollen  stockings,  and  a  couple  pair  of  mittens  for  next 
winter,  for  I  dread  the  idea  of  another  Valley  Forge ;  and  give  her 
and  Ann  my  kind  love. 

11  From  your  affectionate  son, 

"ANDREW  KEMP." 

My  object  in  giving  this  introductory  letter  is  to  show  Mr. 
William  B.  Reed  that  the  treachery  of  his  grandfather  was  under 
stood  by  the  army  at  large,  and  that  the  knowledge  of  it  was  not 
confined  to  a  few  leading  officers.  Documents  of  a  more  precise, 
specific,  and  important  character,  are  in  my  possession,  or  within 
my  means  of  access ;  and  shall  seasonably  appear ;  but,  unlike 
"  McDonough,"  I  do  not  choose  to  put  my  best  foot  foremost,  and 
limp  ever  aftewards.  I  subjoin  another  letter  from  Sergeant  Kemp, 
for  the  edification  of  Mr.  Reed. 

"  Monmouth   Court  House,  N.  J.,  July  2d,  1778." 
"  Dear  Mother, — I  am  laid  up  again,  but  after  the  fatigues  of  a 
great  battle,  and  a  great  victory,  which  we   fought  on  the  28th  of 


61 

June, — James  Maris,  who  had  his  hand  shattered  by  a  bullet,  has 
leave  of  absence  for  four  weeks ;  and  I  drop  a  few  lines  by  the 
opportunity  which  his  going  gives  me.  God  be  thanked,  we  have 
had  a  glorious  victory  !  The  British  troops,  commanded  by  Sir  Henry 
Clinton,  and  ours  by  General  Washington,  were  nearly  matched — say 
ten  thousand  each.  We  fought  from  the  forenoon  till  nigh  dark  ; 
and  our  whole  loss,  killed  and  missing,  is  short  of  seventy,  while 
the  British  lost  about  three  hundred,  and  among  them  one  Colonel 
Monks  or  Monkston.  I  have  no  great  time  for  particulars.  The 
men  behaved  very  nobly ;  and  the  morning  after,  when  we  found 
that  the  British  had  decamped  over  night,  the  General  [Washington,] 
thanked  us  all,  from  horseback.  But  one  thing  there  is  which  has 
occasioned  much  disturbance  among  us.  I  mean  the  conduct  of 
General  Lee,  who  attempted  to  retreat,  and  who  has  since  been  put 
Tinder  order,  to  be  court  martialed. 

"  Then  there's  that  General  Reed  has  been  behaving  very  strangely 
again.  Not  a  man  nor  officer  in  the  army  that  does  not  hate  the 
sight  of  him  ;  we  all  believe  that  he  came  very  near  betraying  us, 
only  that  the  General  [Washington]  found  him  out  in  time.  We 
all  remember  Valley  Forge  last  winter.  Before  the  battle  began,  I 
myself  heard  Gen.  Washington  whisper  to  General  Greene  and 
Wayne,  to  keep  a  sharp  eye  upon  Heed's  movements,  and  if  he  made 
any  suspicious  attempt,  to  order  him  under  arrest,  and  shoot  him  if 
he  resisted.  During  the  whole  battle,  I  never  saw  him;  but  after  the 
last  gun  was  fired,  and  when  it  was  almost  dark,  General  Reed 
suddenly  made  his  appearance  from  the  rear,  and  gave  out  that  he 
had  just  had  a  horse  shot  in  two  under  him,  and  asked  for  two  men 
to  go  and  remove  his  saddle  and  holsters.  I  was  one  of  them  ;  we 
examined  the  horse  very  carefully,  and  found  him  to  be  without  hurt 
or  scratch ;  and  he  had  plain  enough  died  from  mere  heat,  which 
killed  several  horses  and  a  number  of  men  during  the  day.  The 
story  has  got  wind — some  laugh,  but  others  shake  their  heads  about 
it.  Jim  Maris  heard  General  Washington  say  to  General  Wayne  in 
the  evening,  that  he  abhorred  the  very  sight  of  Reed,  and  could 
never  again  put  the  least  faith  in  him.  This  is  not  the  first  time 
that  General  Reed  has  showed  the  white  feather.  He  pretended  to 
have  a  horse  killed  under  him,  in  the  same  way  at  the  Battle  of 
Brandywine,  and  had  two  men  put  in  irons  for  talking  about  it.  I 
am  afraid  my  leg  is  going  to  give  me  a  good  deal  of  trouble  again 
It  is  very  much  swollen,  and  discharges  continually.  They  have  me 
on  the  sick  list.  My  best  love  to  Sarah  and  Ann. 

"  Your  dutitful  son, 
(Signed)  «  ANDREW  KEMP." 


Having  given  the  testimony  of  Sergeant  Kemp,  I  will  now  have 
the  pleasure  of  introducing  to  the  notice  of  Mr.  William  B.  Heed  a 
letter  from  Col.  Samuel  Smith,  to  his  old  friend  in  arms,  Colonel 

,  by  whom  I  have  been  so  kindly  supplied  with  much  of  the 

reminiscences  which  I  have  given  to  the  readers  of  the  Journal,  and 
who  had  addressed  to  Col.  Smith  a  letter,  the  nature  and  object  of 
which  will  best  be  explained  by  the  following  reply  : 

"  Senate  Chamler,  WasJiington,  Feb.  15th,  1832. 

"  MY  DEAR  FRIEND, — Yours  of  the  9th  was  received  'yesterday, 
having  been  forwarded  to  me  by  my  family  from  Baltimore,  to  which 
place  you  had  addressed  it,  forgetting  my  still  being  in  public  life  at 
Washington.  I  suppose  you  think  that  so  old  a  man,  and  one  who 
has  led  so  busy  and  active  a  life,  should  take  the  evening  of  his  days 
to  his  comfort  and  quiet  reflection,  and  I  am  not  sure  bat  that  you 
are  right.  Public  life  ought  to  have  but  little  charms  for  either  you 
or  me;  we  have  both  seen  enough  of  active  service,  and  should  de 
vote  the  remnant  of  time  which  is  left  us,  to  settling  our  accounts 
with  this  world,  and  preparing  for  a  better. 

"  I  am  gratified  to  hear  of  the  task  in  which  you  tell  me  you  are 
engaged.  I  do  not  know  that  it  is  in  my  power  to  afford  you  much 
of  the  assistance  which  you  seem  to  think  I  can  give ;  but  such 
information  as  I  can  communicate  is  very  cheerfully  at  your  service. 
Upon  my  return  to  Baltimore,  I  will  examine  my  papers ;  and  what 
ever  letters  [  can  spare,  which  I  may  think  likely  to  aid  you  in  your 
labors,  or  illustrate  the  times  of  which  you  propose  to  write,  shall  be 
forwarded  to  your  direction. 

"  I  agree  with  you  that  many  of  the  men,  and  not  few  of  the  events, 
of  the  Revolution,  are  very  imperfectly  understood.  Take  General 
Washington  himself,  for  example  :  he  is  represented  as  having  been 
cold  and  repulsive  in  his  manner,  when  the  very  reverse  was  the  fact. 
True,  he  was  dignified  and  reserved,  but  always  courteous,  and,  what 
I  admired  above  all,  always  sincere.  I  never  knew  a  man  capable  of 
stronger  attachments ;  he  had  none  of  the  vices  of  humanity,  and 
fewer  of  its  weaknesses  than  any  man  I  ever  knew.  I  do  not  believe 
Mr.  Jefferson  meant  to  be  unjust ;  but  the  character  drawn  of 
Washington,  which  appears  in  his  recently  published  papers  and 
correspondence,  falls,  in  all  respects,  very  far  short  of  doing  him 
justice.  Mr.  Jefferson  had  not  the  sort  of  mind  which  was  entirely 
capable  of  appreciating,  or  even  exactly  understanding,  a  character 
like  that  of  Washington's.  I  saw  much  of  the  old  General  in  his 
latter  days;  visited  him  several  times  at  Mount  Vernon,  and  fre 
quently  at  Washington.  Doctor  Craih,  (my  near  connexion  by 
marriage,)  was  long  his  physician  and  intimate  friend,  and  was  in 


63 

attendance  upon  his  death-bed.  He  has  given  me  anecdotes  innu 
merable  of  Washington's  generosity  and  kindness  of  heart,  which, 
though,  not  known  to  the  world,  ought  to  be.  Of  these,  I  will  write 
to  you  more  fully  from  home. 

"  I  can  communicate  but  little  concerning  Gen.  Wayne,  which  you 
do  not  know  already.     His  son,  who  lives  somewhere  in  your  state, 
I  should    take  to  be  a  proper  person   to  whom  to  apply.     I  wish  it 
were  in  my  power  to  answer  more  fully  than  I  can,  your  inquiries 
concerning  General  Reed.     My  personal  acquaintance  with  him  was 
limited.     I  shared  in  the  deep  dislike  with  which  he  was  regarded, 
and  his  negotiations  with  the  British  commissioners,  in  the  spring  of 
1778,  made  him  obnoxious  to  the  whole  army,  from  the  commander- 
in-chief  to  the  lowest  subaltern.     You  and  I  talked  this  matter  over 
nearly  fifty  years   since,   and  I  have  found  nothing  to  change,  but 
much  to  confirm,  my  opinions.     It  is  a  little  too  bad  that  this  man 
should  be  reverenced  by  posterity  as  one  of  the  purest  of  the  men  of 
the  revolution,  when  you  and  I,  and   all  who  were  really  active  in 
those  times,  know  that  nothing  but  accident  prevented  his  taking  the 
start    of  Benedict    Arnold.      Though    not   communicative,   General 
Washington  was  always  candid,  and  upon  the  subject  of  Heed's  pre 
meditated  betrayal   of  the   country  to  England,   he  has  frequently 
conversed  with  me  very  freely.     None  of  the  correspondence  between 
Heed  and  the  British   commissioners,  fell  into  his  hands   except  the 
letter  from  Governor  Johnston,  and  an  enclosed  note  in  cypher  from 
Lord  Carlisle,  but  these  contained  sufficient  to   assure  Washington 
that   a   long  correspondence  had  passed — that  proposals    had   been 
made  and  debated,  and  that  Heed  had  finally  submitted  a  proposition 
which  the   commissioners  were  endeavouring  to  reduce.     With  the 
explanation  Heed  gave  you  are  familiar.     No  one  believed  it,  but  it 
passed  muster,  for  the  only  proofs  which  at  the  time  could  be  had, 
were  the  intercepted  papers.     But  ever  after,  Washington  regarded 
Heed  with  great  dislike,    and  treated   him   with    a  manner    strictly 
marked  by  the  display  of  his  feelings.     I  was  present  when  General 
Washington  took  his  final  leave  of  his  officers  at  New  York,  after 
the  close  of  the  revolution,  in  the  winter  of  1783.      The  general's 
eyes  streamed  with  tears,  he  grasped  each   officer  by  the  hand,  but 
when  Reed  approached  him  with  extended  hand,  he  started  as  if  bitten 
by    a    serpent,    made  a  cold  bow,  and   passed    on.     Afterwards,   at 
Annapolis,  where   Congress  was  then   sitting,  I  was    present  when 
General  Reed  was  repeating  to  some  half  a  dozen  of  delegates,  the 
old  story  of  his  refusal  of  the   commissioner's  offer.      Washington, 
who  was  within  three  yards  of  him,  turned  away,  and  remarked  to 
General  Knox,  "  I  know  the  fellow  well ;  he  wanted  but  a  price,  and 
an  opportunity,  to  play  us  false  as  Arnold/'   and  passed  out  of  the 


64 

room.  There  was  a  general  titter,  and  upon  Reed's  enquiring  of 
General  Knox  what  it  was  that  General  W.  had  remarked,  Knox  re 
plied,  "  If  you  did  not  hear  it,  I  advise  you  to  follow  the  general,  and 
request  him  to  repeat  his  observation."  Reed  was  not  a  fighting  man. 
I  do  not  say  that  he  was  a  coward,  but  he  was  always  very  careful  of 
his  person.  His  visit  to  England  in  1784,  I  could  never  under 
stand.  His  circumstances,  just  before,  were  very  much  embarrassed, 
he  had  borrowed  of  all  who  were  willing  to  lend,  and  he  paid  nobody. 
Immediately  upon  his  return,  he  paid  off  all  his  debts,  including  one 
of  three  thousand  dollars  to  General  Wayne,  and  commenced  specu 
lating  in  real  estate  largly,  when  he  was  taken  ill  and  died. 

I  have  given  you  very  near  all  I  have  concerning  this  person.  I 
have  anecdotes  from  others,  of  which  I  will  inform  you  hereafter;  as 
also,  the  particulars  of  several  conversations  which  I  had  with  Wash 
ington  respecting  him.  I  have  always,  from  principle,  been  opposed 
to  making  mischief;  but  I  have  always,  at  the  same  time,  been 
opposed  to  trickery  and  unfounded  pretensions.  Why  the  survivors 
of  the  Revolution  have  so  long  permitted  General  Reed's  treachery 
and  baseness  to  be  glossed  over,  and  himself  converted  into  a  patriot, 
is  to  me  a  mystery ;  but  the  veil  must  be  raised  at  last,  and  I  know 
of  no  one  more  capable  of  performing  the  task  than  yourself. 

"  Let  me  hear  often  from  you — and  always  be  assured  that  I  am 
sincerely  your  friend,  SAMUEL  SMITH. 

I  will  close  my  budget  of  "documents"  as  "  McDonough "  would 
call  them,  for  the  present.  When  I  open  it  again,  the  information 
to  be  drawn  forth  will  be  even  more  definite  than  that  just  given, 
and  possibly,  even  still  less  palatable  to  Mr.  Reed.  He  will  pardon 
me  for  troubling  him  with  two  questions  :  Among  the  papers  left  by 
your  grandfather,  did  you  ever  come  across  a  copy  of  a  very  remark 
able  correspondence  had  between  that  person  and  General  Anthony 
Wayne  in  1781  ?  If  yea,  why  have  you  withheld  it  from  publication? 
Although  you  can  answer  this  last  question,  I  cannot;  but  I  will  tell 
you,  Mr.  Reed,  what  I  can  do  :  I  can  lay  my  hands  upon  a  copy  of 
the  same  correspondence,  and  I  propose  to  entertain  the  readers  of 
the  Journal  with  a  few  selections,  upon  some  not  very  distant  occasion. 

In  Mr.  Reed's  selection  of  &  period  of  time  to  be  illustrated  by  the 
labors  of  "McDonough/7  it  appears  to  me  he  has  been  unfortunate. 
If  he  had  gone  further  back,  he  might  have  recounted  some  of  the  real 
exploits  of  his  grandfather,  and  spared  me  the  labor  which  his  defi 
ciencies  have  compelled  me  to  undertake.  If  he  had  come  a  little 
further  down,  he  might  have  dilated  upon  the  performances  of  his 
father,  a  Recorder  of  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  and  Treasurer  and 
Secretary  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania.  That  labor,  also,  I  fear, 
will  devolve  upon  me.  VALLEY  FORGE. 

Monday,  Sept.  25,  1842. 


65 


From  the  Evening  Journal. 

MR.  WHITNEY — The  communication  of  "  McDonough"  (alias  U. 
S.  Bank  Heed,)  in  this  Morning's  Court  Chronicle,  manifests  that 
there  is  no  small  degree  of  fluttering  among  the  wounded  pigeons  of 
the  "  Holy  Alliance."  The  assumption  of  "  McDonough  "  that  you 
and  "  Valley  Forge"  are  one  and  the  same  person,  is  a  more  novel 
than  logical  mode  of  disproving  the  truth  of  my  allegations.  But  let 
Mr.  Keed  rest  easy  upon  that  score.  WIio  I  am,  is  very  little  to  the 
purpose ;  what  I  assert  is  more  germain  to  the  matter — and  let  this 
lacquay  of  Nicholas  Biddle  deny  that  if  he  dare,  or  disprove  it  if  ne 
can.  If  my  charges  are  true,  the  identity  of  their  author  with  the 
editor  of  the  Evening  Journal  could  not  detract  from  their  truth  ;  if 
false,  a  more  obvious  as  well  as  conclusive  mode  of  establishing  their 
falsity  presents  itself. 

But  the  truth  is,  that  no  arrow  which  has  been  shot  into  the  camp 
of  the  "  Holy  Alliance"  rankles  more  deeply,  or  has  worked  worse 
execution,  than  the  exposure  of  the  authorship  of  "  McDonough." 
Npt  that  Mr.  Beed  is  by  any  means,  either  intellectually  or  extrinsi- 
cally,  the  most  formidable  member  of  the  combination  ;•  but  now  it  is 
known  that  he  is  the  author  of  those  attacks  upon  the  character  of  a 
good  citizen,  of  a  man  against  whom  for  years  the  minions  of  the  Bank 
have  been  directing  their  warfare  without  the  ability  to  discover  a 
crevice  in  his  coat  of  mail,  the  arm  of  the  puny  assailant  falls  paralyzed 
to  his  side,  and  his  intended  victim  laughs  at  him  in  a  tone  of  scorn, 
in  which  the  whole  community  participates. 

William  B.  Reed  to  prate  of  patriotism !  William  B.  Reed  to 
declaim  upon  honor  and  patriotism  !  For  the  chimney-sweep  to  prate 
of  cleanliness  would  not  be  more  anomalous.  With  what  grace  does 
the  defence  of  the  United  States  Bank  come  from  this  "  McDonough  " 
of  the  Chronicle,  when  we  know  him  to  be  the  veriest  lick-spittle  that 
Nicholas  Biddle,  in  his  day  of  pride  and  power,  ever  retained  in  his 
service  ?  As  the  friend  of  Nicholas  Biddle,  as  his  purchased  tool  and 
agent,  rather,  Mr.  Heed  has  never,  for  an  instant,  hesitated  to  sacri 
fice  to  the  promotion  of  the  interests  of  the  Bank,  every  public  trust 
which  for  the  time  being  was  confided  to  his  keeping.  Why  is  it  that 
Mr.  Reed  has  never  yet  explained  away  or  answered  the  very  extra 
ordinary  and  specific  disclosures  of  bribery  which  a  correspondent  of 
the  Ledger  made  against  him  in  the  summer  of  1841  ?  Disclosures 
so  astonishing  that  the  eyes  of  the  public,  although  long  accustomed 
to  look  upon  the  doings  of  the  man  with  distrust,  dilated  with  astonish 
ment.  He  was  accused  by  the  correspondent  of  the  Ledger  with 
having  as  a  member  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  nccepted  Iribes 
from  the  Bank  of  the  United  States;  the  several  amouats  were  speci- 

5 


66 

fied;  documents  were  even  refered  to;  and  yet  Mr.  Reed,  instead  of 
maintaining  his  good  ground  and  confronting  his  accuser,  flies  the  city, 
absents  himself  for  some  time  upon  the  plea  of  a  previously  arranged 
excursion  of  pleasure ;  and  when,  after  his  return,  driven  at  length  to 
a  show  of  explanation,  he  parades  in  print  an  evasion  of  charges,  so 
paltry  that  its  sophistry  would  degrade  the  merest  pettifoger  in  Mr. 
I3iddle's  Court  of  Criminal  Sessions. 

But  since  Mr.  William  B.  Reed,  alias  Mr.  U.  S.  B.  McDonough, 
is  so  pure  a  patriot,  and  has  such  a  holy  horror  of  "  treason  "  and 
"  traitors,"  I  will  give  him  a  few  facts  upon  which  to  reflect,  and  with 
which  he  may  enrich  and  illustrate  his  future  lucubrations. 

Fact  No.  1. — That  Mr.  William  B.  Reed  is,  or  claims  to  be,  the 
grandson  of  General  Joseph  Reed,  of  Revolutionary  memory. 

Fact  No.  2. — That  Mr.  William  B.  Reed  is  feelingly  alive  upon 
the  subject  of  his  grandfather's  memory,  and  has  devoted  the  labors  of 
nearly  his  whole  life  to  establish  the  popular  delusion  that  his  grand 
father's  patriotism  underwent  the  severest  test  and  ordeal  of  the  re 
volutionary  struggle. 

Fact  No.  3. — That  Mr.  William  B.  Reed  has  written  essays,  re 
views  and  paragraphs  innumerable,  to  induce  the  public  to  believe, 
that  when  in  1778  or  1779,  Governor  Johnstone  and  the  other  British 
Commissioners,  proposed  to  General  Reed  a  reward  of  10,000  pounds 
sterling,  and  a  lucrative  office,  upon  condition  that  he  would  lend  him 
self  to  the  views  of  Great  Britain,  he  indignantly  spurned  the  proposal, 
and  replied,  "1  am  not  worth  the  purchase,  but  such  as  I  am,  King 
George  is  not  rich  enough  to  make  it." 

Fact  No.  4. — That  no  such  proposal  was  ever  made  to  General 
Joseph  Reed,  and  that  General  Joseph  Reed  never  made  any  such 
reply. 

Fact  No.  5. — That  General  Joseph  Reed  endeavoured  to  effect  a 
negotiation  with  the  British  Commissioners,  and  actually  commenced 
it,  to  ascertain  what  he  might  expect,  in  money  and  office,  in  case  he 
succeeded  in  effecting  a  reconciliation  between  the  colonies  and  the 
mother  country,  or  in  other  words,  that  he  would  be  instrumental  in 
causing  the  revolted  colonies  to  return  to  their  allegiance  to  Great 
Britain ! 

Fact  No.  6. — That  General  Joseph  Reed,  after  much  chaffering  as 
to  the  price,  finally  proffered  his  services  to  the  British  Commissioners, 
to  effect  the  objects  mentioned  in  "  Fact  No.  5,"  for  the  sum  of  10,000 
pounds  sterling  in  hand,  a  Chief  Justiceship,  and  the  right  to  a  tract 
of  land  West  and  North-West  of  the  then  city  of  Philadelphia,  upon 
a  part  of  which  the  Cherry  Hill  Penitentiary  is  now  erected,  and  the 
whole  of  which,  is  at  this  time  probably  worth  from  five  to  seven  mil 
lions  of  dollars. 


67 

Fact  No.  7. — That  while  this  negotiation  was  pending,  and  while 
the  hucksters  \yere  haggling  as  to  the  terms  upon  which  it  should  close, 
it  came  to  the  ears  of  the  American  Commandcr-in-Chief,  that  General 
Reed  was  engaged  in  a  very  suspicious  correspondence  with  the  British 
Commissioners ;  that  General  Washington  sent  for  General  Heed,  and 
in  the  presence  of  his  staff,  informed  him  of  what  he  had  heard,  and 
demanded  an  explanation ;  and  that  General  Reed,  finding  denial  out 
of  the  question,  admitted  that  overtures  had  been  made  to  him  by 
Governor  Johnstone  and  his  colleagues,  but  that  he  had  replied  to 
them ;  "I  am  not  worth  the  purchase,  but  such  as  I  am,  King  George 
is  not  rich  enough  to  make  it." 

Fact  No.  8. — That  this  patriotic  reply  of  General  Joseph  Reed,  to 
the  attributed  overtures  of  the  British  Commissioners,  had  its  sole 
origin  in  the  explanation  with  which  he  sought  to  dispel  the  suspicions 
of  General  Washington;  that  General  Washington  ever  after  contiaued 
to  regard  him  with  great  distrust;  and  that  several  years  subsequently, 
when'General  Reed,  in  the  presence  of  General  Washington,  was  des 
canting  upon  the  patriotic  reply  with  which  he  had  foiled  the  British 
Commissioners,  General  Washington  turned  away  in  disgust,  and  re 
marked  to  a  friend,  in  a  tone  of  voice  sufficiently  audible  to  be  heard 
by  all  present — "  llmow  the  fellow  well,  and  am  satisfied  that  he  wanted 
but  a  price  and  an  opportunity  to  play  us  as  false  as  Arnold." 

When  Mr.  Reed  shall  have  sufficiently  pondered  over  the  facts 
thus  enumerated,  I  shall  descend  the  ladder  a  step  from  his  grandfather, 
and  come  to  his  more  immediate  progenitor !  Of  him,  I  shall  have 
the  great  question  to  ask — what  is  the  reason  of  his  aversion  to  sun 
shine,  that  he  secludes  himself  all  day  like  an  owl  or  a  bat  ?  But  the 
grandfather  will  suffice  for  the  present.  Mr.  Reed  has  certainly  taken 
uncommon  pains  to  keep  up  the  public  delusion  upon  this  subject. 
Let  him  know  (what  he  will  soon  know  to  his  mortification, )that  there 
yet  survives  a  veteran  of  the  revolution — one  whose  mental  faculties 
are  undimmed  by  age — whose  very  physical  frame,  time  has  treated 
with  tenderness  and  respect — whose  keen  and  lively  intelligence  re 
tains  its  ancient  vigour — a  Revolutionary  soldier,  who  well  knew 
Joseph  Reed;  who  equally  well  knew  George  Washington;  and  who 
intends  to  give  to  the  world,  at  no  very  distant  day,  his  knowledge  of 
them,  and  of  much  beside. 

Mr.  Reed  has  fair  warning — let  him  look  to  it. 

Monday,  Sept.  19,  1842.  VALLEY  FORGE. 

From  the  Evening  Journal. 

MR.  WHITNEY: — Since  your  publication  of  my  last,  "McDonough" 
has  slacked  his  fire  wonderfully.  It  is  surprising  how  one's  tone 
becomes  altered  after  the  discovery  is  made  that  the  former  idea  of 


68 

invulnerability  was  a  great  mistake.  The  home  truths  pressed  upon 
Mr.  William  Bradford  Reed  (I  believe  this  is  the  first  time  that  the 
public  have  been  made  acquainted  with  the  learned  gentleman's  name 
in  full)  have  proved  to  be  of  unpalatable  flavor  and  difficult  digestion  ; 
and  it  is  not,  therefore  to  be  wondered  at  that  they  should  have  for 
him  no  relish.  I  have  not  yet  done  with  the  revolutionary  remini 
scences  of  his  grandfather;  that  worthy  whom  "King  George  was 
not  rich  enough  to  buy,"  although,  as  he  himself  modestly  admitted, 
he  was  "  not  worth  purchasing  :" 

The  writer  of  this  paragraph  had  an  opportunity,  very  many  years 
since,  when  Mr.  Reed  was  a  student  of  the  Pennsylvania  University, 
of  becoming  somewhat  intimately  acquainted  with  his  bent  of  mind ; 
and  if  there  ever  was  a  school-boy  despised  and  detested  by  his  fel 
lows,  William  was  that  youth.  "  The  boy  's  the  father  of  the  man," 
and  those  who  have  known  him  only  in  his  ripened  years,  if  they 
apply  the  truth  of  this  axiom,  will  have  no  difficulty  in  correctly 
conjecturing  what  must  have  been  his  early  youth.  Even  then  his 
predominant  weakness  was  to  almost  daily,  and  by  the  hour,  expatiate 
upon  the  merits  of  his  great  "grandfather,"  and  to  entertain  boys, 
smaller  and  younger  than  himself,  with  the  revolutionary  exploits — 
more  numerous  and  diversified  far  than  those  with  a  narration  of 
which  Othello  beguiled  the  fair  Desdernona,  performed  by  that  dis 
tinguished  personage:  and  in  particular,  how  "the  General"  had 
repulsed  the  proffered  bribe  of  the  Treasury  of  Great  Britain,  and  his 
pick  and  choice  of  the  most  lucrative  office  in  the  Colonies. 

Down  to  this  day,  this  has  continued  to  be  the  habit  of  Mr.  Reed ; 
and  to  such  an  extent  has  he  indulged  it,  that  he  has  become  the  butt 
and  laughing  stock  of  his  acquaintance. 

"  0,  wad  some  Pow'r  the  giftie  gie  us 

To  see  oursels  as  others  see  us  ! 

It  wad  frae  manie  a  blunder  free  us, 

An  foolish  notion  !" 

The  extraordinary  pains  taken  by  Mr.  Reed,  to  circulate  the  notion 
of  his  grandfather's  more  than  Roman  patriotism,  would,  of  itself,  be  a 
circumstance  calculated  to  induce  suspicion  of  their  being  "  something 
rotten  in  Denmark ;"  but,  fortunately  for  the  truth  of  history,  the 
proofs  of  General  Reed's  treachery  and  meditated  "treason,"  (if  not 
actual  treason,  are  extant — and  the  veteran,  to  whom  in  my  last  I 
referred,  will,  in  due  time,  give  them  to  the  world.  The  descendants 
of  General  Reed  have  succeeded  long  enough  in  imposing  upon  the 
American  people,  as  a  patriot  and  a  hero  of  the  "  times  that  tried 
men's  souls,"  a  wretch,  who,  in  the  emphatic  language  of  General 
Washington,  spoke  in  his  presence  and  hearing,  "wanted  but  a  price 


69 

and  an  opportunity  to  play  us  false  as  Arnold  !"  who,  while  his  fellow 
soldiers  were  stinted  of  food  and  scant  of  clothing,  was  in  actual  treaty 
with  the  British  Commissioners,  to  betray  the  American  Army,  and 
their  Commander-in-Chief,  and  their  cause,  and  their  Country,  to 
Great  Britain,  for  the  consideration  of  ten  thousand  pounds  sterling, 
a  judicial  office,  and  a  tract  of  land  ! !  ! 

By  a  monstrous  suppression  of  truth,  and  an  adroit  perversion  of 
the  explanation  which  General  Reed  gave  to  the  demands  of  the 
American  Commander-in-Chief,  respecting  his  correspondence  with 
the  British  "Commissioners,  his  descendants  have  managed,  so  far, 
with  tolerably  general  success,  to  thrust  into  the  ranks  of  the  Carrolls 
and  Hancocks,  the  Putnams  and  Warrens  of  the  Revolution,  a  "  trai 
tor,"  who  entered  into  the  struggle  as  a  matter  of  Speculation ;  and 
who,  from  the  date  of  his  appointment,  in  1774,  as  one  of  the  Com 
mittee  of  Correspondence  of  Philadelphia,  down  to  the  detection  of 
the  fact,  some  years  after,  that  he  was  engaged  in  a  correspondence 
with  the  British  Commissioners,  watched  with  untiring  vigilance,  for 
a  proper  "  opportunity"  to  betray,  for  a  sufficient  « price,"  the 
cause,  and  the  country,  to  the  tender  mercies  of  George  the  Third 
and  his  ministry  !  There  is  scarcely  a  Review  or  Magazine,  published 
in  the  country,  into  which,  under  the  pretext  of  reviewing  some 
publication,  Mr.  William  B.  Reed  has  not  contrived  to  obtrude  some 
panegyric  of  his  grandfather's  patriotism — fulsome,  even  if  true,  but 
most  monstrous  when  considered  with  reference  to  its  unworthy 
object. 

Not  content  with  chaunting  Gen.  Reed's  praise  as  an  "invisible 
singer,"  Mr.  Reed  has  not  hesitated  to  take  the  field  openly,  and  in 
person,  and  sound  the  trumpet  in  the  ears  and  before  the  eyes  of  the 
astonished  lookers  on.  Before  every  literary  or  collegiate  association 
which  he  has  been  called  on,  or  finefied  to  have  himself  invited  to 
address,  the  eternal  burden  of  his  song  has  been,  "  I  am  the  grand 
son  of  the  great  and  good  patriot,  General  Joseph  Reed,  of  revolu 
tionary  memory,  who  replied  to  the  emissaries  of  Great  Britain,  when 
they  offered  him  his  own  terms  to  further  the  views  of  England,  <  I 
am  not  worth  the  purchase,  but  poor  as  I  am,  King  George  is  not 
rich  enough  to  make  it. ' '  At  New  York,  a  few  years  since — 
afterwards,  in  the  Musical  Fund  Hall,  in  this  city — more  recently  at 
Dickinson  College — quite  lately  at  Harvard  University,  in  short, 
everywhere,  and  on  all  occasions,  the  self  same  tune  has  lulled  his 
audiences  into  a  general  slumber.  How  any  one  whose  cheek  is  not 
formed  of  brass,  can  stand  up  as  Mr.  Reed  has  accustomed  himself 
to  do,  and  thus  dole  out,  on  all  occasions,  and  before  all  assemblies, 
the  patriotism  of  a  grandfather,  for  whose  "  treason"  he  should  blush, 
I  am  at  a  loss  to  imagine.  Even  if  deserved  modesty  ought  to  insinu- 


70 

ate  that  the  tribute  would  be  more  appropriately  paid,  and  in  better 
taste,  by  other  voices. 

But  the  strongest  part  of  all  is,  that  Mr.  Reed,  with  that  full 
knowledge  which  I  know  him  to  possess  (and  which  I  will  satisfy  him 
that  I  know  him  to  possess)  of  his  grandfather's  traitorous  designs 
and  conduct,  should,  nevertheless,  have  succeeded  in  steeling  himself 
to  the  habit  which  has  made  him  so  supremely  and  universally 
ridiculous. 

Whenever  it  is  announced  that  a  new  work  is  in  preparation,  in 
any  way  connected  with  the  events  of  the  American  Revolution,  poor 
Mr.  William  B.  Reed  "gets  the  fidgets."  He  throws  business,  as 
Macbeth  did  physic, — to  the  dogs  ;  he  can  hardly  delay  for  the  intro 
duction  of  a  supply  of  clean  linen  into  his  carpet-bag;  but,  jumping 
into  the  next  steamboat  or  railroad  car,  he  travels  post-haste  till  he 
has  reached  the  residence  of  the  author,  whom  he  never  leaves  till  he 
has  fully  satisfied  himself  that  the  projected  work  is  to  contain  noth 
ing  that  can  detract  from  the  spurious  fame  of  General  Reed,  or  call 
into  question  the  truth  of  his  attributed  reply  to  the  British  Commis 
sioners.  Poor  Mr.  Jared  Sparks  must  have  had  a  hard  time  of 
annoyance  during  the  long  series  of  years  in  which  he  was  engaged  in 
preparing  for  the  press  his  editions  of  the  correspondence  of  Washing 
ton  and  Franklin.  Mr.  Bancroft,  the  author  of  the  History  of  the 
United  States,  is,  at  present,  a  particularly  prominent  object  of  Mr. 
Reed's  dread.  Indefatigable  in  his  researches  he  cannot  have  failed  to 
become  possessed  of  some  of  the  evidences  of  General  Reed's  "  treason," 
and,  stern  in  his  impartiality,  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  he  will 
hesitate  to  place  before  the  world  the  character  and  doings  of  this  mis 
creant  in  their  true  colours.  Fearful  of  this,  Mr.  Reed  has  long  been 
engaged  in  playing  the  toady  to  Mr.  Bancroft :  with  what  success 
thus  far,  remains  to  be  seen  :  but  one  thing  is  certain,  that  Mr.  Ban 
croft  will  have  placed  in  his  hands,  in  time  to  inform  him  fully  for 
his  preparation  of  that  volume  of  his  history  in  which  it  will  become 
necessary  for  him  to  introduce  the  name  of  General  Joseph  Reed, 
letters  and  documents  that  will  establish  the  u  treason"  of  that  worthy 
beyond  a  doubt. 

The  last  volume  of  Mr.  Bancroft's  work  comes  down  no  later  than 
1784 ;  so  that  there  will  probably  appear  another  volume  before  the 
period  of  General  Reed's  exploits  will  become  the  subject  of  his  com 
position  ;  and  of  this  length  of  time  Mr.  Reed  will  doubtless  endeavor 
to  take  advantage  and  make  good  use.  He  has  just  made  a  formidable 
demonstration  upon  Mr.  Bancroft.  "  At  the  recent  literary  festival 
at  Cambridge,"  (to  borrow  the  language  of  Mr  Reed,  contained  in  his 
late  letter  to  the  editors  of  the  National  Intelligencer,  concerning  Mr. 
Graham,  the  historian,)  Mr.  Reed's  toadying  of  Mr.  Bancroft  was 


71 

the  subject  of  general  comment.  Not  content  with  the  display  of  his 
fulsome  civilities  on  that  occasion,  Mr.  Reed  has  since  forced  an 
opportunity  of  volunteering  to  the  editors  of  the  National  Intelli 
gencer,  the  letter  to  which  I  have  just  alluded;  in  which  under  the 
pretext  of  honouring  the  memory  of  the  late  James  Graham,  Esq.,  the 
English  author  of  a  History  of  American  Colonies,  Mr.  Bancroft  is 
plastered  with  praise.  It  is  thus  that  Mr.  Reed  seeks  either  to  impose 
upon  Mr.  Bancroft  the  same  "  Romance  ot  American  History/'  in 
which  the  grandfather  is  the  principal  personage,  with  which  he  flatters 
himself  he  has  duped  every  body  else,  or  to  disarm  him  of  any  inten 
tion  of  publishing  the  true  history  of  his  connection  with  the  British 
Commissioners. — And  what  most  of  all  enhances  the  meanness  of  Mr. 
Reed's  conduct  is  the  fact,  that,  but  a  year  or  two  since,  he  was 
accustomed,  at  the  Whig  political  meetings  of  this  city,  to  make  Mr. 
Bancroft  (who  then  held  the  office  of  Collector  of  the  Port  of  Boston, 
and  was  a  prominent  Democrat,)  the  especial  object  of  his  abuse, 
lavished  upon  him  in  the  most  unmeasured  terms. 

Such  is  the  man,  who,  with  a  thorough  knowledge  of  his  grand 
father's  delinquencies,  persists  in  upholding  him  to  the  world  as  a 
true  and  sterling  patriot;  who,  knowing  him  to  be  a  "  Traitor" 
steeped  in  "  Treason'  to  the  very  eyelids,  and  seeking  to  barter 
away  his  country  and  its  liberties  for  British  gold  and  office,  repre 
sents  him,  unblushingly,  as  the  worthy  compeer  of  Washington,  a 
fellow  labourer  in  the  same  vineyard,  toiling  from  the  rising  to  the 
setting  of  the  sun  !  !  !  But  Mr.  Reed's  race  of  eulogy  of  his  ancestors 
is  nearly  run.  The  proof  of  that  man's  treachery,  long  known  to  the 
few,  will  soon  be  promulgated  to  the  many — to  the  WORLD.  How 
then,  will  Mr.  William  B.  Reed  feel,  when  he  remembers  his  itinerant 
career  of  laudation  ;  his  journeyings  by  sea  and  by  land,  that  the 
trumpet  of  General  Joseph  Reed's  praises  might  be  sounded  ?  His 
essays,  reviews,  addresses,  and  heaven  only  knows  what  all  besides  ? 
But,  above  all,  how  will  he  then  feel  when  he  remembers  that,  under 
the  stolen  name  of  a  naval  hero  of  the  Late  War,  he,  this  worthy  de 
scendant  of  a  Traitor  and  Tory  of  the  Revolution,  once  devoted  whole 
weeks  to  the  malignant  endeavour  to  fasten  upon  a  pure  and  unoffend 
ing  citizen  the  very  crime  of  "  Treason,"  of  which  he  knew  his  own 
grandfather  to  have  been  guilty  ? 

With  one  or  two  little  anecdotes,  (the  character  of  which  may 
somewhat  surprise  Mr.  Reed  at  the  extent  and  accuracy  of  my  infor 
mation,)  I  close  for  the  present.  I  will  select  those  which  Mr.  Reed 
has  the  best  reasons  for  knowing  to  be  true.  During  the  visit  of 
Lafayette  to  this  country,  the  father  of  Mr.  William  B.  Reed,  (Mr. 
Joseph  Reed,  the  late  Recorder  of  Philadelphia,)  called  on  the 
General  at  his  quarters,  in  this  city,  and  requested  the  honour  of  a 


72 

private  interview.  The  General  (who  bad  been  waited  upon  by  Mr. 
Reed  before,  in  company  with  the  authorities,  and  other  citizens) 
intimated  his  numerous  and  pressing  engagements  ;  but  Mr.  Reed 
persisting,  the  interview  was  granted;  one  not  strictly  private,  how 
ever,  there  being  two  other  gentlemen  present.  Mr.  Reed  informed 
the  G-eneral  that  his  object  was  to  obtain  from  him  some  revolutionary 
anecdotes,  of  which  he  was  convinced  he  must  possess  a  stock,  of 
his  father,  the  late  General  Joseph  Reed.  General  Lafayette's 
countenance  immediately  fell :  he  endeavoured  politely  to  evade  Mr. 
Reed's  request;  at  last,  as  Mr.  Reed  would  take  nothing' short  of 
downright  refusal,  the  General  was,  at  length,  compelled  to  remark, 
*<  I  am  sorry  to  say,  sir,  that  I  am  acquainted  with  no  anecdotes  of 
the  late  General  Reed  which  it  would  be  pleasant  for  his  son  or  any 
of  his  friends  to  hear."  Mr.  R.  having  bowed  himself  out  of  the 
room  in  great  confusion,  the  General  remarked  to  one  of  the  gentle 
man  present,  in  surprise,  "  This  is  very  strarge !  Can  it  be  possible 
that  Mr.  Reed  is  ignorant  of  the  opinion  which  the  officers  of  the 
Revolution  entertained  of  his  father?"  And  now  for  another,  in 
which  Mr.  William  B.  Reed  himself  figured.  A  year  or  two  before 
the  death  of  Bishop  White,  he  called  on  the  venerable  prelate  and 
made  a  request  precisely  similar  to  that  with  which  his  father  had 
troubled  General  Lafayette.  Anxious  to  spare  his  feelings,  the  good 
Bishop  endeavoured  to  change  the  subject ;  but,  no  other  mode 
offering  of  escaping  from  the  pertinacity  of  Mr.  Reed,  he  said  to  him, 
"  Young  man,  upon  the  subject  of  your  grandfather,  the  least  that's 
said,  will  be  soonest  mended  !" 

In  my  next,  I  will  so  far  follow  the  example  of  McDonough,  as  to 
publish  a  few  "  Documents,"  the  original  of  which  will  be  consigned, 
before  long,  to  Mr.  Bancroft. 

VALLEY  FORGE. 

Sept.  23d,  1842. 

From  the  Evening  Journal, 

MR.  WHITNEY  : — The  Jeremiads  of  the  Forum  and  the  Evening 
Courier  shall  not  deter  me  from  the  task  which  I  have  deliberately 
assumed,  and  which  I  mean  to  carry  out,  of  exposing  the  treachery 
of  the  late  General  Joseph  Reed,  and  the  delinquencies  of  his  living 
grandson,  Mr.  William  Bradford  Reed.  Why,  instead  of  deprecation, 
do  not  these  journals  give  disproof?  Is  a  fellow  to  be  canonized  as 
a  saint,  because  he  is  no  longer  of  the  living?  Then  let  all  history 
be  rewritten,  and  let  the  puling  mawkishness  which  the  hypocrites 
call  manly  indignation,  reject  from  the  page  of  history  the  infamy 
of  a  Nero,  the  cruelty  of  a  Tiberius,  and  the  treason  of  an  Arnold. 
If  it  be  proper  for  the  entertainment  or  instruction  of  posterity,  that 


73 

the  vices  and  crimes  of  the  men  of  history  shall  be  faithfully  detailed, 
why  should  not  the  "  treason"  of  General  Reed,  contemplated  or 
effected,  be  spread  upon  his  country's  annals  ?  Above  all,  when  he 
and  his  descendants  have  adroitly  disguised  his  villainy  with  the 
varnish  of  incorruptible  patriotism,  why  should  the  hand  which  has 
the  power  to  tear  off  the  mask,  and  expose  the  enormity  of  guilt,  be 
made  to  fall,  self-withheld  and  self-paralyzed,  from  the  effort?  These 
are  questions  which  admit  of  but  one  reply.  I  shall  go  on,  and  in 
continuation  of  niy  developments,  I  here  subjoin  another  letter  from 
Col.  Samuel  Smith  to  the  same  gentleman  to  whom  was  addressed 
his  last. 

Baltimore,    October  2d,  1832. 

MY  DEAR  COLONEL — I  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your  two  very 
kind  letters  since  I  left  Washington,  and  thank  you  for  the  acceptable 
accompaniment  of  the  last.  Also,  for  the  pamphlet  on  Cholera 
which  you  have  sent — I  loaned  it  to  several  of  our  medical  gentlemen, 
and  they  all  seem  to  think  highly  of  it.  Our  people  have  been  much 
alarmed,  and  I  think  with  good  reason.  For  my  own  part,  I  enter 
tain  but  little  uneasiness.  I  have  lived  a  long  life,  and  though  I  am 
far  from  tired  of  it,  I  am  ready  to  go  whenever  it  pleases  him  who 
gave  it  to  take  it  away. 

Looking  over  my  paper,  I  have  directed  copies  to  be  made  up  such 
as  seem  adapted  to  your  purpose.  These,  and  some  original,  I  will 
send  to  your  direction,  whenever  I  hear  from  you  again,  and  you 
inform  me  how  to  send  them.  I  have  but  few  letters  from  Gen. 
Washington — the  originals  I  cannot  consent  to  part  with;  but  copies 
are  cheerfully  at  your  service.  I  have  had  a  copy  taken  of  a  very  re 
markable  correspondence  between  General  Wayne  and  General  Heed, 
which  awaits  your  directions.  I  was  on  a  visit  to  Wayne  shortly  after 
its  close;  he  read  it  to  me,  and  I  was  so  much  struck  with  it,  that  I 
requested  leave  to  take  a  copy,  which  he  gave  me.  You  will  find  it 
a  curiosity,  and  it  is  another  development  of  the  real  character  of 
Reed.  I  think  I  formerly  mentioned  I  knew  but  little  of  Gen. 
Wayne,  with  which  you  are  not  already  acquainted,  and  I  may  say 
much  the  same  as  to  Putnam,  except  what  I  had  from  conversation 
with  General  Washington.  I  have  never  been  able  to  make  up  my 
mind  how  far  Gen.  Gates  was  concerned  in  the  movement  for  his 
promotion,  at  Washington's  expense.  He  certainly  did  not  openly 
encourage  it.  It  is  so  delicate  a  matter,  I  did  not  like  to  directly 
question  General  Washington.  Once  or  twice,  in  conversation,  I 
thought  he  was  coming  to  the  point,  but  he  broke  off  without  reach 
ing  it.  Many  of  Conway's  movements  against  Washington  had  a 
tact  and  address  about  them,  for  which  Gates  generally  received  the 


74 

credit.  Towards  the  close,  his  calumnies  of  Washington  were  dis 
gustingly  obscene — I  mean  Conway's.  General  Reed  was  well 
known  to  be  deepty  engaged  in  this  conspiracy.  But  he  lacked  the 
courage  of  Conway,  and  was  wholly  without  the  rashness  which  so 
frequently  marked  the  latter.  Reed  was  a  cautious  and  cunning 
plotter — he  never  looked  one  in  the  eye.  Lee,  who  mortally  hated 
him,  had  a  common  saying,  "that  Reed's  face  was  stamped  with  the 
devil's  favorite  brand."  I  was  once  present  when  he  made  the  re 
mark  in  the  presence  of  Reed,  without  observing  him.  Reed  stepped 
forward,  and  angrily  demanded  "  what  was  that,  sir  ?"  Lee  bowed 
and  repeated  the  observation,  amid  roars  of  laughter  from  all  present. 
General  Reed  left  the  spot,  remarking,  "you  shall  hear  from  me 
shortly ;"  to  which  Lee  replied,  "  I  doubt  that."  Nothing  further 
ever  came  of  it. 

Conway  and  Reed  were  decidedly  the  two  most  unpopular  men  in 
the  army — with  this  difference,  that  Conway,  though  disliked,  was 
respected,  until  his  calumnies  of  Washington  were  carried  to  their 
extent.  Of  Conway's  duel  with  General  Cadwalader  I  have  no 
particulars  which  you  do  not  possess.  Conway  became  nearly 
involved  in  another  duel  on  Reed's  account.  He  took  up  a  quarrel 
of  Reed's  but  it  was  compromised.  Reed  was  publicly  insulted, 
and  submitted  like  a  boarding-school  miss.  My  sentiments  on 
some  subjects  have  changed  with  my  advancing  years;  but  I  well 
remember  the  surprise  which  I  felt,  and  which  the  whole  army  ex 
pressed,  that  a  soldier,  and  one  wearing  epaulettes,  should  patiently 
submit  to  the  epithet  of  "  liar,"  and  a  threat  of  having  his  nose 
pulled.  It  may  have  been  a  conscientious  scruple ;  but  he  did  not 
hesitate  to  get  others  into  difficulties. 

In  1783  or  '84,  I  had  business  which  called  me  to  Alexandria. 
To  my  delight,  I  met  General  Washington  there,  and  he  insisted 
upon  my  accompanying  him  home.  The  weather  was  wet  and  cold, 
and,  for  a  wonder,  as  he  expressed  himself,  he  was  without  visiters 
but  me.  I  remained  at  Mount  Yernon  several  days  and  had  many 
and  long  conversations  with  the  General.  While  there,  one  of  his 
newspapers  mentioned  the  return  of  General  Reed  from  England,  in 
feeble  health ;  and  this  induced  a  conversation  concerning  that,  per 
son.  I  reminded  the  General  of  the  coolness  with  which  I  had  seen 
him  treat  Reed  at  the  final  leave-taking  of  his  officers ;  and  of  the 
remark  I  had  afterwards  heard  him  make  at  Annapolis.  The  par 
ticulars  I  gave  you  in  my  letter  from  the  Senate.  General  Washing 
ton  rose,  stamped  his  foot  somewhat  violently  ;  then  instantly 
checking  himself,  he  paced  the  room  slowly,  speaking  while  he 
walked.  I  remember  every  thing  he  said  as  plainly  as  if  it  had 
been  spoken  only  yesterday.  He  stated  to  me,  that  he  had  no  doubt 


75 

that  General  Reed  had  long  been  in  treaty  with  the  British  before 
the  arrival  of  their  Commissioners  in  Philadelphia  in  1778  ;  and  that, 
after  the  treaty  of  peace,  in  1783,  he  received  information,  which 
placed  it  beyond  question,  that,  in  the  appointment  of  the  Com 
missioners,  the  British  Ministry  had  selected  Lord  Carlisle  with  ex 
press  reference  to  an  acquaintance  which  he  had  had  with  Reed, 
when  Reed  was  in  England,  seventeen  or  eighteen  years  before. 

He  mentioned  that,  in  1777,  while  the  army  was  yet  encamped  at 

Valley  Forge,  Mrs. ,  a  lady  from  Philadelphia,  with  whom  Reed 

was  long  known  to  have  had  a  criminal  intercourse,  was  arrested 
within  the  lines,  and  that  her  suspicious  conduct  induced  a  search, 
which  led  to  the  discovery  of  a  letter  upon  her  person,  from  Governor 
Johnstone  to  General  Reed,  and  enclosing  a  note  from  Lord  Carlisle, 
which  was  in  cypher.  This  letter  related  to  overtures  upon  which 
Donop,  the  Hessian  officer,  and  General  Reed,  had  already  exchanged 
their  views ;  pronounced  them  to  be  somewhat  extravagant ;  and 
suggested  that  Reed  had  better  close  the  arrangement  which  had 
been  proposed  to  Count  Donop,  and  he  would  have  no  reason  to  com 
plain.  The  ten  thousand  pounds  of  which  Donop  spoke,  Johnstone 
said  would  be  immediately  paid,  and  he  did  not  think  there  would  be 
any  difficulty  about  the  land  or  its  equivalent ;  but  of  the  office  that 
Donop  mentioned,'  he  (Governor  Johnstone,)  could  not  speak  with 
confidence  ;  upon  that  subject,  the  enclosed  note  from  Lord  Carlisle, 
Governor  Johnstone  said,  would  inform  General  Reed  more  definitely. 
This  note  being  in  cypher,  General  Washington  informed  me  he 
never  succeeded  in  having  unravelled.  Immediately  upon  receiving 
these  papers,  General  Washington  informed  me  he  called  a  council, 
and  sent  for  Reed.  He  placed  the  two  letters  in  General  Reed's 
hands,  and  demanded  an  explanation.  Unfortunately,  the  officer 
whom  he  had  sent  for  Reed  had  informed  him  what  had  happened 
and  he  had  thus  some  time  and  opportunity  for  preparation.  Reed 
professed  himself  unable  to  read  the  note  in  cypher,  and  said  he  did 
not  know  what  it  meant. 

As  to  the  letter  from  Governor  Johnstone,  he  explained  that 
overtures  had  been  some  time  before  made  to  him,  offering  him  his 
own  reward,  upon  condition  of  his  bringing  about  a  peace,  but  that 
he  had  replied,  «  that  he  was  not  worth  the  purchase,  but  poor  as  he 
was,  King  George  was  not  rich  enough  to  make  it."  When  General 
Washington  demanded  why  he  had  not  before  informed  him  of  this 
communication,  Reed  replied,  that  though  he  was  incorruptible,  he 
was  afraid  of  letting  it  be  known  what  offers  had  been  made,  lest 
other  officers  might  have  been  tempted  to  accept  them.  Reed  was 
placed  under  arrest  until  further  inquiries  were  made,  but  they  were 
not  successful,  and  he  was  released.  The  female  upon  whom  the 


76 

letters  were  detected,  had  been  released,  after  being  searched,  and 
though  every  effort  was  made  to  get  her  again  it  was  fruitless. 
General  Washington  added,  that  through  the  rest  of  the  war,  he 
watched  Reed  narrowly,  and  trusted  him  with'  nothing;  and  though 
he  had  no  further  proof  of  his  guilt,  he  was  satisfied  that  his  treason 
had  existed.  But  General  Washington  informed  me,  that  after  the 
peace,  he  had  received  information,  the  source  of  which  he  was  not  at 
liberty  to  divulge,  but  the  truth  of  which  he  had  satisfied  himself  ,of, 
that  nothing  but  the  accidental  intercepting  of  Johnstone's  and  Car 
lisle's  letters,  had  prevented  Reed's  consummation  of  treason.  He 
had  become  fully  convinced,  after  the  disbanding  of  the  army,  that 
Reed  had  had  numerous  personal  interviews  during  the  war,  with 
leading  British  officers ;  that  he  had  seen  Donop  at  Burlington  ;  that 
he  had  been  repeatedly  within  the  British  lines,  and  that  he  now 
knew  that,  after  the  battle  of  Germantown,  he  had  visited  the 
English  General,  Howe,  at  his  Head  Quarters,  in  Philadelphia. 

I  have  now  given  you,  accurately,  the  substance  of  General 
Washington's  conversations  upon  this  subject.  It  fully  accounts  for 
his  marked  treatment  of  Reed  at  New  York  and  Annapolis ;  and  it 
must  convince  you  what  a  precious  rogue  in  grain  this  counterfeit 
patriot  was. 

My  letter  will  not  reach  you  for  some  time  after  its  date.  My 
arm  is  stiff,  and  I  write  slowly ;  and,  although  I  have  but  one  date, 
I  have  written  a  little  each  day  for  four  days.  God  bless  you,  my 
old  friend,  and  make  me  hear  frequently  from  you. 

Yours  very  truly, 

SAMUEL  SMITH. 

I  allow  Mr.  William  Bradford  Reed  till  Saturday  to  meditate  upon 
this  epistle.  On  that  day,  unless  he  should  anticipate  me,  and  pub 
lish  the  correspondence  with  Wayne,  to  which  Colonel  Smith  refers, 
1  shall  have  the  pleasure  of  presenting  it  to  the  public  eye.  It  is  a 
light  that  ought  not  to  be  hidden  under  a  bushel  ;  but  should  be 
placed  upon  an  elevation  high  as  the  summit  of  the  Bunker  Hill 
Monument,  that  it  may  be  seen  far  and  wide. 

VALLEY  FORGE. 
October  1st,  1842. 

October  5th,  1842. 

MR.  WHITNEY. — While  exposing  the  demerits  of  Mr.  William 
Bradford  Reed,  I  have  no  disposition  to  disparage  whatever  of 
ability  or  information  he  may  really  possess;  and  concerning  the 
letter,  I  cheerfully  acknowledge  that  he  has  made  himself  very 
thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  true  character  of  the  leading  men 
and  events  of  the  American  Revolution. 


77 

But  it  is  this  that  constitutes  bis  chief  shame.     In  his   absurd 
panegyrics  of  bis  «  Grandfatber,"  he  has  not  been  imposed  upon ; 
be  is  seeking  to  impose  upon  otbers,  and  in  this  he  has,  to  a  very 
considerable  extent,  succeeded  ;  he  is  sinning  against  the  excess  of 
light  and  the  superfluity  of  knowledge.     Possessing  the  most  ample 
proofs  of  his  grandfather's  treachery  to  his  country  in  the  darkest 
hour  of  his  country's  peril,   Mr.  William  B.  Keed  has  not  hesitated 
to  hold  him  up  to  that  very  country  which  he  sought  to  betray,  and 
did  well  nigh  betray,  and  would  have  betrayed,  but  for  the  timely 
interception    of    his    treasonable    correspondence    with    the    British 
Commissioners,  as  one  of  the  most  glorious  and  incorruptible  of  the 
patriots  who  fought  and  suffered  for   the  establishment  of  American 
Independence  !     The  guilt  of  this  will  cling  to  Mr.  Reed  enduringly. 
Never  can  he  shake  off  its  contamination.     Could  he  escape  from 
the  odium  of  his  more  immediate  personal  delinquencies;  his  fawning 
sycophancy   of  Nicholas   Biddle;  his  dirty  work  in   behalf  of  that 
man  for   money,  not  for  love ;  could  he  deluge  with  Lethean   ocean 
the  public  memory,  his  malpractices  as  attorney-general ;   his  venal 
career    as    a   member    of    the    Legislature ;    could    he    induce    the 
public  to  overlook  the  bribes  wbich  he  pocketed  under  the  pretext  of 
fees  received    for  services  never  performed — bribes,  the  amount  of 
which  and  the  dates  of  whose  reception,  are  well  known,  and  sus-4 
tainable    by  documentary    reference; — could  all  this  be  erased,  as 
systematic  and  persevering  labours,  from  his   boyhood  upward,   to 
delude  a  much  injured  country  into  reverence  for  the  memory,  not  of 
the  contemporary,   but   of  the  predecessor   of  Benedict   Arnold   in 
"  treason''   have  won  for  him  an  infamy  from  the  consequences  of 
which  escape  is  impossible. 

I  have  heretofore  referred,  in  general  terms,  to  Mr.  Reed's 
numerous  applications,  by  writing  and  in  person,  to  such  survivors  of 
the  Revolution,  or  their  descendants,  as  he  supposed  could  furnish 
the  information  he  desired,  for  anecdotes  of  General  Reed  ;  a  part  of 
my  labours,  hereafter  to  be  entered  upon,  will  be  to  narrate  not  a  few 
of  the  rebuffs  and  rebukes  this  unfortunate  Doctor  Syntax  in  search 
of  the  biographical  Pickenesque  has  experienced,  and  the  minute 
fidelity  with  which  my  sketches  shall  be  marked,  will  contribute,  let 
me  assure  Mr.  Reed,  no  less  to  his  surprise  than  mortification,  nay, 
I  will  establish  that  much  of  the  information,  that  many  of  the 
documents,  which  1  propose  to  lay  before  the  readers  of  the  Evening 
Journal,  he  and  his  brother,  the  Professor,  possess ;  that  copies  of 
some  of  the  latter  have  long  been  in  their  hands ;  and  that  Mr. 
William  B.  Reed  has  solicited  the  transfer  or  destruction  of  the 
originals.  But  I  will  even  do  more  than  all  this,  I  will,  in  at  least 
two  instances,  publish  his  own  Utter ,  praying  for  the  loan  if  not  the 


78 

gift,  of  original  papers  affecting  the  fame  of  his  grandfather.  Even 
here  I  do  not  mean  to  stop.  I  shall  show  that  Mr.  Reed  succeeded 
in  inveigling  from  the  possession  of  a  gentleman  of  my  acquaintance, 
for  a  pretended  temporary  purpose,  a  letter,  the  publication  of  which 
he  supposed ;  and  a  part,  I  may  say  a  prominent  part,  of  Mr.  Reed's 
scheme  to  perpetuate  the  delusion  of  his  grandfather's  patriotism,  has 
been  to  write  or  call  upon,  every  person  projecting  any  work  con 
nected  with  the  Revolution ;  and  by  tendering  information,  or  other 
wise  volunteering  his  assistance,  to  deceive  or  disarm.  He  has 
played  his  game,  so  far,  with  very  clever  success ;  and,  as  I  formerly 
mentioned,  it  is  one  which  he  is  at  present  engaged  in  practising 
upon  Mr.  Bancroft — that  same  Mr.  George  Bancroft,  whom,  at  a 
political  meeting  in  this  city,  held  some  four  or  five  years  since,  he 
so  delicately  described  as  a  "  tin  cannister  tied  to  the  tail  of  Martin 
Van  Buren,  while  Martin  Van  Buren,  was  running  through  the 
street,  like  a  hot  slut,  with  the  whole  kennel  of  loco-focoism  bawling 
at  her  heels  !"  Adapting  this  figure  to  circumstances,  as  it  might  be 
introduced  with  great  effect,  into  Mr.  Reed's  collegiate  eulogy  upon 
the  services  and  patriotism  of  his  grandfather. 

In  Col.  Smith's  last  published  letter  to  Col.  ,  he  promised  to 

furnish  the  latter  with  copies  of  certain  letters,  and  in  another  he 
says. 

*  *  ##**;}:#*  *  # 

"  I  cannot  answer  your  inquiry  about  Captain  Anderson.  I  knew 
several  officers  of  that  name,  but  can  recal  nothing  particular  con 
cerning  any  of  them.  I  once  received  a  letter  from  a  person  some 
where  in  the  State  of  Delaware,  calling  himself  Henry  Anderson, 
inquiring  about  his  uncle  Captain  Anderson,  of  the  Revolutionary 
army,  but  I  have  not  retained,  or  mislaid  the  letter,  and  cannot  call 
to  mind  his  more  particular  address.  But  even  this  defective  infor 
mation  may  serve  to  put  you  on  the  scent. 

"  Your  son  will  tell  you  much  for  me  that  I  would  otherwise  write. 
My  rheumatism  has   prevented  my  showing   him  as   much   of  the 
civilities  of  our  town  as  I  would  have  liked,  but  you  will  excuse  me. 
"  Most  truly  and  sincerely, 

"  your  old  friend, 

«  SAMUEL  SMITH. 

From  among  the  accompaniments  of  this  letter  transmitted  by 
Col.  Smith,  I  select,  for  incorporation  in  the  present  article,  the 
following  correspondence  between  General  Anthony  Wayne  and 
General  Joseph  Reed.  The  "  Numbers"  with  which  they  are  pre 
fixed  appear  to  be  of  General  Wayne's  own  addition. 


79 

No.  1. 

GEN.  A.  WAYNE, 

My  Dear  General — 

Only  the  day  before  yesterday  I  heard  of  your  being  here,  and  then 
but  by  accident,  or  I  should  have  addressed  you  upon  the  subject  of 
this  communication.  For  several  months  there  has  been  a  rumor 
industriously  circulated  in  this  city,  that  during  the  last  summer,  you 
stated  while  in  "  South  Carolina,"  in  the  presence  of  General  Greene 
and  other  officers,  that  my  conduct  at  the  battles  of  Brandywine  and 
Monmouth  had  subjected  me  to  the  imputation  of  timidity.  It  is 
added  that  you  referred  disparagingly  to  circumstances  which  occurred 
at  Valley  Forge,  and  revived  the  exploded  calumny,  for  the  truth  of 
which  you  personally  vouched,  that  I  had  signified  my  acceptance  of 
the  terms  then  offered  me  by  the  Commissioners,  which  you  know 
that  I  spurned  with  scorn. 

Of  course  you  will  understand  me  to  be  satisfied  that  you  never  did 
use  any  language  of  the  kind,  but,  as  these  remarks  have  been  propo- 
gated  by  persons  who,  I  have  every  reason  to  believe,  are  no  less  your 
enemies  than  mine.  I  am  anxious  to  afford  you  an  opportunity  for 
their  contradiction,  and  this  I  have  to  request  you  will  promptly  give 
me. 

I  should  be  sorry  that  malicious  and  designing  persons  should  have 
it  in  their  power  to  disturb  the  harmony  of  the  relations  which  I  have 
so  long  enjoyed  with  one  upon  whose  friendship  I  set  so  high  a  value, 
and  for  whom  I  entertain  a  peculiar  esteem. 
With  great  respect  and  cordiality, 

I  am  my  Dear  General,  yours,  &c., 

JOS.  REED. 

Dec'r  26th,  1783. 

No.  2. 

Philadelphia,  December  Zlth,  1783. 

Sir — The  cool  effrontery  of  your  note  yesterday  surprised  me.  By 
what  right  you  presume  to  refer  to  any  harmony  of  relations  between 
us,  and  to  speak  of  the  value  of  my  "  friendship"  I  am  at  a  loss  to 
comprehend.  That  harmony  was  first  disturbed  by  the  pecuniary 
difficulties  in  which  you  so  dishonestly  involved  me,  and  from  which 
I  am  only  now  beginning  to  extricate  myself,  apart  from  which  I 
could  entertain  no  feelings  of  "  friendship"  for  an  officer  for  whom 
I  have  such  abundance  of  reasons  for  entertaining  sentiments  of  a 
very  different  description.  I  have  no  doubt  that  my  remarks  to 
General  Greene  and  others  have  been 'correctly  reported  to  you,  not 
only  in  South  Carolina  and  Georgia,  but  years  ago  in  Pennsylvania, 


80 

and  witliin  the  immediate  reach  of  your  personal  demand.  I  have 
never  hesitated,  on  all  proper  occasions  to  express  myself  in  similar 
terms.  I  never  merely  intimated  that  your  conduct  at  the  battles  of 
Brandywine  and  Monmouth  had  subjected  you  "  to  the  imputations  of 
timidity,"  but  I  have  always  said  that  your  behaviour  at  those  battles, 
particularly  that  of  Chad's  Ford,  should  have  secured  your  dismissal 
from  the  army. 

What  you  refer  to  as  « the  exploded  calumny"  of  your  negotia 
tions  with  the  enemy  at  Valley  Forge,  I  in  common  with  every  officer 
in  the  army,  with  whom  I  have  ever  conversed  upon,  the  subject, 
including  the  Commander-in-chief,  believe  to  be  strictly  well-founded. 

I  am  Sir,  yours, 

ANTHONY  WAYNE. 

To  Joseph  Reed. 

VALLEY  FORGE. 

We  take  the  following  communication  of  Mr.  Smith,  from  the 
North  American  of  this  morning. 

"  In  compliance  with  this  arrangement,  I  came  to  this  city  thia 
evening,  accompanied  by  three  of  my  friends  conversant  with  my 
father's  handwriting,  viz;  Hon.  Louis  McLane,  Robert  Gilmore,  and 
Robert  Purviance,  Esqrs.,  and  was  met  at  the  place  and  hour  of  ap 
pointment  by  William  B.  Reed  and  Henry  Reed,  Esqrs.,  and  waited 
there  until  half-past  eight  o'clock,  without  the  appearance  of  the 
author  of  "  Valley  Forge,"  or  any  of  his  friends. 

JNO.  SPEAR  SMITH. 

Washington  House,  Parlor  No.  3, 

Monday,  October  24th,  1842. 

In  relation  to  this  matter,  we  received  through  the  Post-Office  this 
morning,  the  following  explanation  from  Valley  Forge. 

"  Mr.  WHITNEY  : — I  am  unable  to  express  my  mortification  at  the 
unhappy  and  unexpected  accident  which  has  prevented  my  meeting 
the  Messrs.  Reed  and  Mr.  John  Spear  Smith  this  evening,  at  the 
time  and  place  appointed  by  them,  for  the  purpose  of  having  tested 

the  authenticity  of  General  Samuel   Smith's  letters  to  Colonel , 

Col. is  my  near  relative,  and  though  in  his   ninety-third  year, 

has  till  last  Thursday,  enjoyed  the  most  excellent  health  for  one  of 
so  advanced  an  age.  As  he  will  not  permit  the  originals  to  be  taken 
out  his  sight,  I  intended  of  course  that  he  should  accompany  me  as 
one  of  my  three  friends.  His  sudden  and  severe  illness  has  rendered 
this  impossible;  he  refuses  to  part  with  the  documents  even  for  a 
temporary  purpose,  and  I  have  thus  been  compelled  to  submit  for  the 
present  to  this  most  mortifying  piece  of  ill-fortune. 


81 

No  doubt  the  exultation  of  the  Messrs.  Reed  will  be  violent,  but 
let  me  say  to  them,  it  will  be  but  short-lived.  But  a  brief  time  will 
pass,  and  all  the  papers  which  I  have  published,  and  many  more 
which  are  yet  to  come,  will  be  fully  proved  and  laid  before  the  pub 
lic.  When  Colonel  --  's  health  is  restored,  I  do  not  doubt  that  I 
shall  prevail  upon  him  to  place  them  in  my  hands,  when  I  shall  sco 
Mr.  John  Spear  Smith  with  them  at  Baltimore  and  have  the  Messrs. 
Heed  see  them  here. 

VALLEY  FORGE. 
October  24^   1842." 


We  do  not  approve  of  this  course  of  procedure  on  the  part  of 
Valley  Fcrge,  nor  do  we  think  it  a  proper  one.  We  think  he  ought 
to  have  met  Mr.  Smith  and  the  Messrs.  Reed  at  the  place  and  time 
appointed,  and  made  the  explanation  in  person.  Under  any  circum 
stances,  we  think  it  was  due  to  them  as  well  as  to  ourselves.  The 
proposition  which  was  made  by  Valley  Forge  having  been  accepted  by 
the  above-named  gentlemen,  what  reason  can  there  be  for  longer  pre 
serving  his  incognito?  Indeed  he  expressed  his  willingness,  in  one 
of  his  notes,  which  we  publish  below,  to  unveil  himself  as  soon  as 
the  proposition  he  made  was  accepted. 

We  had,  from  the  first,  as  we  have  now,  the  fullest  confidence  that 
the  letters  purporting  to  be  from  the  late  General  S.  Smith  were 
genuine,  as  well  as  that  the  intentions  of  Valley  Forge,  so  far  as  con 
cerned  ourselves,  were  fair,  and  that  he  would  establish  the  authenti 
city  of  those  letters,  and  the  other  documents  contained  in  his 
communications. 

Our  belief  in  the  genuineness  of  the  letters  of  General  Smith,  was 
strengthened  by  the  perusal  of  a  letter  which  we  now  have  before  us, 
addressed  to  General  Joseph  Reed,  by  General  John  Cadwalader,  in 
1783,  which  corroborates  what  those  letters  contain.  In  that  letter 
the  latter  gentleman  says,  "  Having  fully  stated  the  temper  of  men's 
minds  at  this  alarming  period,  and  the  situation  of  public  affairs,  I 
shall  now  recite  the  conversation  and  circumstances  relating  thereto, 
which  I  have  avowed  in  my  letter  to  you  of  the  10th  September,  as 
having  passed  between  us  at  Bristol. 

<•'  I  had  occasion  to  speak  with  you,  a  few  days  before  the  intended 
attack  on  the  20th  December,  1776,  and  requested  you  to  retire  with 
me  to  a  private  room  at  my  quarters;  the  business  related  to  intelli 
gence  —  a  general  conversation,  however,  soon  took  place  concerning 
the  state  of  public  affairs,  and  after  running  over  a  number  of  topics, 
in  an  agony  of  mind,  and  despair  strongly  expressed  on  your  counte 
nance,  and  tone  of  voice,  you  spoke  your  apprehensions  concerning 
the  event  of  the  contest  ;  that  our  affairs  looked  very  desperate,  and 

6 


82 

we  were  only  making  a  sacrifice  of  ourselves ;  that  the  time  Gen. 
Howe's  offering  pardon  and  protection  to  persons  who  should  come 
in  before  the  1st  January,  1777,  was  nearly  expired ;  and  that 
Galloway,  the  Aliens,  and  others,  had  gone  over  and  availed  them 
selves  of  that  pardon  and  protection  offered  by  said  proclamation ; 
that  you  had  a  family,  and  ought  to  take  care  of  them,  and  that  you 
did  not  understand  following  the  wretched  remains  (or  remnants)  of 
a  broken  army ;  that  your  brother  (then  Colonel  or  Lieutenant 
Colonel  of  the  militia — but  you  say  of  the  five  month's  men,  which 
is  not  material)  was  then  at  Burlington  with  his  family,  and'  that  you 
had  ordered  him  to  remain  there,  and  if  the  enemy  took  possession 
of  the  town,  to  take  a  protection  and  swear  allegiance — and  in  so 
doing  he  would  be  perfectly  justifiable. 

"  This  was 'the  substance,  and  I  think  nearly  the  very  words;  but 
that,  "  you  did  not  understand  following  the  icretclied  remains  (or 
remnants)  of  a  broken  army  !  I  perfectly  remember  to  be  the  very 
words  !" 

The  letter  of  General  Cadwalader  contains  the  letters  of  P.  Dickin 
son,  John   Nixon,  Benjamin  Hush,  David  Lenox,  A.  Hamilton,  and 
a  numbers  of  other  persons,  confirming  what  we  have  quoted. 
The  subjoined  notes  from   Valley  Forge  gave  us  confidence  in  the 
fairness  of  his  intentions. 

R.  M.  WHITNEY,  Esq  :  Dear  Sir — I  observe  an  invitation  in 
yesterday's  Journal,  for  me  to  call  at,  or  send  to,  your  office,  for  some 
information  which  you  have  to  impart.  For  reasons  which  I  shall 
have  the  pleasure  of  expressing  to  you  hereafter  in  person,  I  am 
anxious  to  preserve  my  incognito,  for  the  present,  even  with  my 
nearest  friends ;  and  this  consideration  will  prevent  my  calling.  I 
am  also  at  a  loss  to  know  how  to  send ;  but  if  you  will  drop  me  a 
few  lines  in  the  letter  box  of  the  Post-office,  I  shall  not  fail  to  re 
ceive  them. 

Very  truly,  &c., 

VALLEY  FORGE. 
September  23d,  1842. 

Please  direct  to  « Ambrose  Anderson,  Philadelphia." 

R.  M.  WHITNEY,  Esq.,  Dear  Sir, — I  am  favored  with  your  note, 
refering  me  to  General  Cadwalader's  pamphlet,  which  you  inform  me 
has  been  abstracted  from  the  Philadelphia  Library.  I  have  access  to 
material,  far  beyond  any  thing  in  importance  and  value  which  could 
possibly  be  obtained  by  General  Cadwalader;  nevertheless  the  abstrac 
tion  of  his  pamphlet  is  a  circumstance  which  I  will  not  fail  to  turn  to 
good  account.  The  gentleman  to  which  I  so  often  refer,  in  my  com- 


83 

munications  as  the  revolutionary  soldier  who  has  furnished  me  with 
information,  is  a  near  relative  of  mine,  who  knew  Gen.  Joseph  Reed 
thoroughly.  I  shall  continue  my  communications  from  time  to  time ; 
and  you  may  rely  upon  my  giving  you  nothing,  which  does  not  admit 
of  literal  substantiation.  Among  other  letters  which  I  have,  are 
several  from  "George  Clymer,"  (whom  you  mention  in  your  note,) 
which  hit  the  nail  on  the  head. 

Will  you  permit  me  the  liberty  of  suggesting  a  continuance  of  your 
vigorous  editorials  upon  Stephen  Girard?  The  word  "finessed"  ia 
my  last,  your  compositor  has  transformed  into  finified. 

Respectfully  &c., 

VALLEY  FORGE. 

Sept.  25,  1842. 

REUBEN  M.  WHITNEY,  Esq.,  Dear  Sir, — I  am  afraid  that,  in 
copying  Sergt.  Kemp's  first  letter,  I  have  made  an  error  of  date,  on 
which  account  I  am  glad  my  communication  has  not  appeared  to-day, 
as  it  gives  me  an  opportunity  of  correction.  I  am  anxious  to  avoid 
even  the  slightest  mistake  in  my  communications.  The  letter  is  dated 
"June  23rd,  1778."  I  am  not  certain  that  I  did  not  so  transcribe  it; 
but  if  I  did  not,  be  good  enough  to  make  the  correction.  I  particu 
larly  wish  you  would  italicise  my  interrogatory  to  Reed  relative  to  his 
grandfather's  correspondence  with  General  Wayne.  There  is  a  point 
in  it  which  he  will  fully  understand,  and  which  will  give  him  more 
uneasiness  than  all  else.  I  intend  reserving  my  extracts  from  that 
correspondence  for  the  very  last. 

Respectfully,  &c. 

VALLEY  FORGE. 

Sept.  27,  1842. 

R.  M.  WHITNEY,  Esq., — Dear  Sir — I  am  provoked  to  find  that, 

upon  comparing  my  copy  of  Col.  Smith's  letter  to  Col. ,  with  the 

original,  that  I  have  made  another  error !  I  hope  this  will  reach  you 
in  time  for  its  correction.  Speaking  of  his  visit  to  Gen.  Washington 
at  Mount  Vernon  and  Washington,  it  should  be,  and  Philadelphia. 

Respectfully,  &c., 

VALLEY  FORGE. 
Sept.  28,  1842. 

R.  M.  WHITNEY, — Dear  Sir — I  have  been  absent  for  a  day  or  two 
from  the  city,  and  did  not  receive  your  note  until  to-day.  I  enclose  a 
note  for  publication — oblige  me  by  letting  it  appear  to-morrow.  T 


84 

cannot  imagine  how  so  stupid  an  error  could  have  occured  as  the  er 
roneous  date  of  Kemp's  discharge  by  Gen.  Washington.  But  the 
error  almost  corrects  itself — as  Kemp's  letter  of  July  2d,  speaks  of 
the  battle  of  Monmouth  on  the  28th.  I  do  not  know  whether  the 
blunder  is  that  of  your  workman,  or  mine  in  the  haste  of  transcribing. 
One  or  two  other  errors,  which  are  mine,  I  made  the  subject  of  two 
notes,  which  I  addressed  you  through  the  Post-office.  My  absence 
from  town,  and  my  intended  absence  to-morrow,  prevent  my  preparing 
another  article  for  Saturday.  Possibly,  I  will  have  it  ready  for  Mon 
day,  and  certainly  for  Tuesday-  Acknowledge  its  receipt,  and  that  it 
will  appear  on  Monday  or  Tuesdaj.  I  have  not  yet  come  to  the  real 
(/ems  of  my  budget.  Reed  shall  have  a  surfeit. 

Respectfully,  &c., 

VALLEY  FORGE. 
Sept.  30,  1842. 

R.  M.  WHITNEY,  Esq :  Dear  Sir — Nothing  could  have  afforded 
me  more  pleasure  than  the  publication  which  has  been  made  by  the 
Reeds.  It  has  given  me  the  opportunity,  which  I  have  from  the  first 
been  seeking,  of  bringing  the  question  of  General  Reed's  revolutionary 
exploits  to  a  crisis.  I  pledge  myself  to  you,  that  I  will  overwhelm 
them  with  confusion  and  shame. 

I  have  not  called  for  your  letter  at  the  Post-office,  because  I  know 
that  I  am  watched  ;  and  I  do  not  desire  to  be  known  till  the  adoption 
of  my  proposition  to  the  Reeds,  of  which  I  speak  in  the  accompanying 
communication,  and  which  I  will  furnish  for  publication  in  Monday's 
Journal.  They  have  fallen  completely  into  the  snare. 

Yours,  &c.,  very  truly, 

VALLEY  FORGE. 

October  14,  1842. 

In  his  explanatory  communication  of  yesterday's  date,  Valley  Forge 
speaks  of  many  more  papers  "  which  are  yet  to  come  : "  we  suppose  he 
means  yet  to  be  published.  If  so,  we  feel  constrained  to  say  now, 
that  we  cannot  publish  any  thing  more  relating  to  the  matter  until 
he  announces  to  us,  at  least,  his  real  name. 

From  the  Evening  Journal. 

R.  M.  WHITNEY,  Esq  :  Dear  Sir, — I  am  pained  beyond  measure, 
at  the  situation  in  which  I  have  been  so  unfortunately  instrumental 
in  placing  you.  But  for  circumstances  which  1  cannot  possibly  CQH- 


85 

trol,  I  would  promptly  communicate  to  you  my  name  and  residence. 

A  pledge,  rigidly  exacted  by  my  venerable  relative,  Col.   ,  and 

solemnly  given  by  me  at  the  time  he  consented  that  I  should  com 
municate  to  you  the  letters  of  the  late  General  Smith,  and  the  other 
papers  with  which  he  furnished  me,  that  I  should  not  make  either 
him  or  myself  known  without  his  consent,  binds  me  as  with  links  of 

iron.     Col. is  slowly  recovering  from   the   paralytic  affection 

with  which  he  was  seized  on  the  20th  of  this  month;  and  let  me 
assure  you,  most  sacredly  and  solemnly,  that  as  soon  as  his  health  is 
sufficiently  restored  to  allow  a  conversation  of  any  length  to  be  had 
with  him,  I  will  not  fail  to  convince  him  of  the  propriety — of  the 
necessity — of  permitting  me  to  call  upon  you,  or  invite  you  to  his 
residence,  where,  preliminary  to  my  taking  the  proper  steps  to  con 
vince  the  public  of  their  authenticity,  I  may  exhibit  to  you  all  the 
writings  which  have  been  so  exultingly  prounounced  to  be  "  audacious 
forgeries." 

You  do  me  but  justice,  when  you  say,  that  "  a  careful  perusal  of 
the  letters  of  Valley  Forge,  confirms  the  belief,  that  he  is  neither  an 
impostor  nor  a  forger  of  letters."  Why  should  I  be  ?  What  motive 
could  induce  any  rational  being  to  originate  a  fabrication  so  sure  to 
be  detected  ?  You  will  find,  ere  very  long,  that  I  have  given  you 
nothing  but  the  truth.  Only  one  liberty  did  I  venture  to  take  with 
any  of  the  correspondence — that  was  from  considerations  of  delicacy, 
which  I  now  believe  to  have  been  fastidious,  and  to  which,  at  the 

time,  I  reluctantly  yielded.     In    Gen.  Smith's  letter  to  Col.  , 

dated  Oct.  2d,  1832,  I  substituted  a  Uank  for  the  name  of  Mrs. 
Ferguson"  which  Gen.  Smith  gives  as  that  of  the  lady  from  whom 
was  taken  the  letter  of  Governor  Jonstone  to  Gen.  Reed.  This,  the 
only  alteration  I  ever  made,  you  must  allow,  was  a  pardonable  error. 

"  Truth  is  mighty  and  must  prevail ;"  and  in  this  case,  to  the  joy 
of  your  friends,  and  the  consternation  of  your  enemies,  it  shall  be 
signally  exemplified.  For  the  present,  let  me  entreat  you  to  rest 
satisfied  with  my  assurances ;  assurances  which  will  soon  be  most 
thoroughly  redeemed ;  and  that  you  will  desist  from  your  endeavor 
to  discover  who  I  am — efforts  which  can  give  you  but  vain  trouble, 
which  must  prove  fruitless ;  for  the  precautions  which  I  have 
adopted  for  the  preservation  of  my  incognito,  it  is  impossible  to 
overcome. 

Very  truly,  &c., 

VALLEY  FORGE. 
October  29th,  1842. 


86 

From  the  Evening  Journal,  October  31st. 

i(  Valley  Forge"  and  General  Joseph  Reed — Is  there  a  Sepulchral 
Sanctuary  for  Public  Men? — The  success  of  the  American  Revolu 
tion — Justice  and  Truth  essential  Elements  of  History — "  Forgery" 
—  The  Editor,  &c. 

"Whatever  motives  may  have  actuated  "  Valley  Forge"  to  the  pub 
lication  of  documents  affecting  the  revolutionary  services  and  fame  of 
General  Joseph  Reed,  and  we  pretend  not  either  to  scan  them,  or  doubt . 
their  honorable  complexion — for  truth,  when  on  the  side  of  country 
and  patriotism,  admits  not  of  suspicion  or  mistrust — whatever  motive, 
we  say,  may  have  impelled  him  to  the  revelation  of  these  important 
historical  documents,  there  can  exist  no  doubt  as  it  respects  the 
principle  which  sustains  the  ransacking  of  the  grave,  for  the  sake  of 
truth.  Begin  at  any  period  of  history,  however  early,  and  it  will  be 
found  that  public  men  have  always  been  considered  as  public  property 
— their  characters,  their  conduct  and  their  opinions,  belonging  to  the 
world,  with  no  privilege  of  sanctuary,  either  in  life  or  in  the  tomb. 
It  was  so  with  the  Hebrews,  it  was  so  with  Persians,  the  Babylonians, 
the  Grecians,  the  Romans,  the  French,  the  English,  and  even  the 
Chinese.  Indeed,  so  obvious  is  the  principle,  as  almost  to  dispense 
with  argument.  It  bears  on  its  very  face,  the  irresistible  force  of  a 
first  principle  ]  for  if  the  grave  cannot  cover  up  the  good  deeds  of  men, 
it  never  can  be  made  to  conceal  their  evil  ones.  The  lessons  of  history, 
like  the  lessons  of  life,  are  derived  more  from  the  wicked  than  the 
good.  The  striking  contrast  of  example,  comes  from  the  man  who  has 
perpetuated  deeds  that  curdle  the  blood  with  fear,  or  crimson  the 
cheeks  with  shame.  Virtue  is  negative,  quiet,  undismayed — but  vice 
rides  aloft  on  the  back  of  desecrated  principles  and  violated  laws,  ac 
companied  by  the  tumultuous  rush  of  a  moral  whirlwind,  overturning 
the  fruits,  blossoms  and  harvest  of  life ;  bearing  blasts  upon  its  brow, 
and  leaving  havoc  in  its  train.  And  so  do  the  laws  of  all  well 
governed  countries  dispose  of  the  remains  of  notorious  felons,  who, 
instead  of  being  suffered  to  repose  in  the  grave,  are  denied  all  inter 
ment  ;  their  bodies  being  delivered  over  to  the  surgeons  for  the  benefit 
of  science,  or  exposed  on  a  gibbet,  till  the  crows,  eagles  and  vultures, 
devour  their  flesh,  and  then,  even  their  bones  are  left  to  blacken  in 
the  winter's  blast,  as  a  warning  to  man,  to  shun  the  deeds  that  led 
them  to  their  doom. 

Where  is  the  sepulchral  sanctuary  for  Buonaparte  ?  or  for  Nero  ?  or 
for  Marius,  Sylla,  Otho,  Galba,  Charles  of  Burgundy,  or  Ferdinand  of 
Spain?  How  many  patriots  are  commemorated  in  the  Lives  of 
Plutarch  ?  Expunge  from  the  History  of  England  the  great  scoundrels 
who  disgraced  their  diadems,  on  the  plea  of  sepulchral  sanctuary,  arid 


87 

how  many  kings  will  remain  to  grace  their  pages  with  the  splendor  of 
their  virtues  ?  The  same  question  may  be  asked  in  reference  to  all 
histories,  and  the  same  answers  given  ;  there  would  be  no  history,  if 
the  grave  silenced  the  tongue  to  speak  of  the  vices  and  crimes  of  the 
dead  who  disgraced  their  nature. 

To  return  to  the  principle  of  success,  as  a  standard  of  virtue,  in 
great  revolutionary  movements.  The  intrinsic  merit  of  a  civil  move 
ment,  or  commotion,  to  produce  a  change  of  government  by  force  of 
arms,  or  social  intimidation  without  bloodshed,  is  not  sufficient  to 
glorify  its  actors.  Success  is  essential  to  give  renown  which  confers 
fame  and  glory  on  its  authors.  This  was  fully  understood  during  the 
American  Revolution.  A  host  of  calculating  spirits  stood  mute,  inac 
tive,  or  luke-warm,  watching  the  changes  of  the  contest,  and  fearful 
of  embarking  in  a  cause  that  might  miscarry.  In  such  a  crisis,  the 
wavering,  the  doubtful  and  the  timid,  were  more  dangerous  to  their 
country's  cause  than  the  open  traitor  in  arms  against  freedom.  The 
generous,  the  brave,  the  frank,  the  self-devoted  patriot,  rushed  head 
long  into  the  contest,  putting  in  peril,  life,  honor,  property,  fame, 
family,  friends,  children — all  that  is  dear  to  life,  and  all  that  life 
endears.  The  calculating  and  timid  palsied  their  daring  counsels  by 
weak  irresolution  of  wicked  duplicity.  Among  these  time-servers,  it 
seems  General  Joseph  Reed  stood  prominent.  Careful  of  his  person, 
he  shunned  danger.  Calculating  the  probable  miscarringe  of  the 
Revolution,  he  occupied  the  prudent  ground  of  a  tory  royalist,  seeming 
to  battle  for  liberty,  but  ready,  at  any  moment;  to  assume  the  scarlet 
uniform,  and  shout  "  God  save  King  George  !"  A  traitor  in  his  heart 
to  the  cause  of  Independence,  lest  that  cause,  by  failing,  should  make 
him  a  traitor  to  his  king,  for  whom  he  felt  a  warmer  affection  than 
for  the  rebels — he  stood  always  on  the  alert,  to  join  the  British,  or  to 
appear  their  greatest  foe;  practising  the  meanest  arts  to  seem  brave, 
yet  always  held  in  open  contempt  for  his  timidity  and  cowardice.  If 
the  Revolution  succeeded,  he  calculated  to  pass  for  a  patriot.  If  the 
royal  arms  triumphed,  he  stood  prepared  to  claim  the  rewards  of  his 
fidelity  to  the  KING,  more  valuable  than  an  open  adherent  because  a 
secret  spy,  who  betrayed  the  cause  of  the  rebels,  while  pretending  to 
fight  under  its  colors,  in  the  uniform  of  an  American  Officer  of  the 
army  of  George  Washington  ! 

Such  appears  to  have  been  the  character  of  General  Joseph  Reed,  from 
documents  decidedly  authentic — so  authentic  as  to  have  led  to  their 
partial  destruction,  by  his  vain  and  silly  descendants,  who  imagined 
that  truth  could  be  extinguished,  while  vanity  was  kindling  a  spurious 
flame  to  consummate  an  imaginery  apotheosis,  for  one  whose  actual 
deeds  consigned  him  to  the  keeping  of  the  furies  and  his  country's 
execration. 


88 

If  such  men  are  to  be  allowed  an  enrolment  on  the  page  of  fame, 
as  revolutionary  patriots,  who  achieved  our  independence,  there  is  no 
merits  in  those  who  stood  side  by  side  with  Washington,  in  the 
darkest  hour  of  the  Revolution,  when  dismay  sat  on  the  bravest  brow 
— spurning  the  temptation  of  British  bribes — bidding  defiance  to 
British  battalions,  and  enduring  the  pangs  of  hunger,  thirst,  and 
howling  blasts — naked  amidst  winter's  snow,  with  earth  for  a  pillow, 
and  the  canopy  of  heaven  for  a  covering — treason  thundering  in  their 
ears — rewards  offered  for  their  heads,  and  nothing  but  liberty  and 
independence,  with  the  secret  assurance  of  heaven's  succour  -from  a 
just  God,  to  cheer  and  console  them — bleeding,  dying,  desolate. 
Shall  the  time-serving  traitor  take  his  position  by  the  side  of  such 
men  ?  Shall  all  merit  be  levelled  into  one  common  mass  of  calcula 
ting  selfishness  ?  For  such  must  be  the  effect,  if  General  Joseph 
Reed  is  to  occupy  a  niche  of  glory  in  the  same  temple  with  George 
Washington.  But  there  is  no  moral  crucible  to  melt  down  such 
deeds  into  a  general  and  indiscriminate  mass.  Truth  revolts  from 
such  profanation  Justice  spurns  the  contamination.  Nature  herself 
rises  up  in  arms  against  the  thought,  as  doing  violence  to  all  her 
holiest  sympathies ;  her  purest  heart-throbs,  her  noblest  aspirations. 
God  himself  denounces  the  impiety 

Having  demonstrated  the  importance  of  the  revelations  of  "Valley 
Forge"  to  the  truth  and  accuracy  of  history — of  that  history,  in 
which  we  are  all  so  intensely  interested — as  belonging  to  the  fame  of 
the  fathers,  and  as  destined  for  an  inheritance  to  our  children,  to  the 
end  of  time — it  remains  to  consider  how  the  editor  of  the  Evening 
Journal,  in  giving  publicity  to  corroborative  materials  for  history,  luis 
merited  that  torrent  of  scurrility,  that  has  been  vomited  upon  him 
from  the  sympathisers  in  the  royal  cause  of  George  the  Third — who, 
even  up  to  this  day,  still  retain  in  their  veins,  the  poison  of  tory 
blood  !  "  Valley  Forge"  makes  no  fresh  charge  against  the  tories  of 
1776.  He  but  deals  in  specifications  of  treasonable  designs,  common 
to  every  history  of  our  Revolution,  and  to  be  found  in  every  life  of 
George  Washington,  If  he  has  ventured  on  the  daring  task  of  commit 
ting  fabrications  of  letters  from  General  Smith  to  Colonel ,  he 

has  perpetrated  supererogatory  crime,  for  no  sensible  purpose — for  all 
that  General  Smith's  letters  told  us,  we  knew  before,  as  notorious 
facts  of  history.  For  this  reason,  we  do  not  believe  he  has  com 
mitted  "  forgery" — from  the  mere  love  of  crime,  or  any  other  motive. 
If,  then,  the  sympathisers  in  the  Royal  cause,  are  so  offended  by 
these  letters,  as  to  pour  forth  the  phials  of  their  wrath  upon  the  edi 
tor  of  this  paper,  it  must  be  from  some  other  motive  than  virtuous 
sensibility  or  wounded  patriotism.  But  this  is  not  all.  What  was  the 
character — what  the  tendency  of  the  letters  of  "  Valley  Forge"  who 


89 

has  unquestionably  committed  a  deep  injury,  in  maintaining  his  anony 
mous  character,  and  failing  to  redeem  "  his  gage,"  thrown  down  with 
so  much  defiance  to  Mr.  Spear  Smith — what,  we  say,  was  the  tendency 
of  his  letters  ?  It  was  laudable,  noble,  exemplary.  It  was  to  vindi 
cate  Washington,  and  his  co-patriots,  from  all  suspicion  of  being  asso 
ciated  with  General  Joseph  Reed,  the  secret  royalist — the  wavering 
tory — all  which  he  is  known  to  be,  on  the  authority  of  Cadwalader, 
as  well  as  Washington  himself — from  all  suspicion  of  being  asso 
ciated,  we  say,  with  Reed  as  a  friend — a  bosom,  and  confidental 
friend.  Their  direct  tendency  is,  to  exalt  the  patriots  of  the  Revo 
lution,  and  to  depress  those  English  spies  in  the  American  uniform, 
who  correspond  in  cypher,  with  the  royal  commissioners,  and  sought 
to  sell  the  liberties  of  their  country,  for  a  price,  at  the  very  crisis  of 
her  fate.  And  what  reply  is  made  to  "  Valley  Forge  ?"  Do  the 
parties  criminated,  defend  their  ancestor  ?  No. — Do  they  question 
the  truth  of  history  ?  No. — But  they  charge  "  Valley  Forge/'  with 
fabrication.  Yet,  if  he  be  guilty,  does  it  make  Reed  innocent  ?  No. 
— Then  why  not  defend  themselves  ? 

VALLEY   FORGE. 

October -,  31s?, 

We  give  another  communication  to-day,  from  the  writer  of  the 
articles  under  this  signature.  We  are  satisfied  that  Valley  Forge  is 
what  he  represents  himself  to  be — that  he  is  sincere,  honest,  and 
will,  as  soon  as  circumstances  will  permit,  establish  the  authenticity 
of  every  document  he  has  furnished  for  publication.  We  shall  re 
frain  from  pushing  our  searches  any  further,  for  the  purpose  of  dis 
covering  the  person  of  Valley  Forge,  for  the  good  reason  that  we  are 
satisfied  that  we  know  him  already.  On  comparing  the  note  of  the 
14th  inst.,  to  us,  written  evidently  by  Valley  Forge  himself,  but  in  a 
disguised  hand,  with  a  letter  of  a  recent  date,  in  the  natural  hand 
writing  of  the  person  who  we  believe  assumes  that  name,  there  are 
innumerable  evidences  that  most  clearly  establish  his  identity,  satis 
factorily  to  us. 

A  word  to  our  enemies  now.  Let  them  go  on  and  pour  forth  their 
malice,  give  full  vent  to  their  venom,  and  pile  obloquy,  mountain 
high ;  we  regard  it  as  the  idle  wind,  that  passeth  by  and  harmeth 
not.  We  have  long  been  accustomed  to  be  traduced  and  slandered. 
For  making  the  exposition  of  the  mal-appropriatiou  of  the  money  of 
the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  by  Mr.  Biddle,  the  first  that  was 
ever  made,  we  brought  down  on  our  head  the  whole  weight  of  the 
power  of  that  institution  and  its  legions  of  friends  and  supporters. 
We  were  charged  with  having  perjured  ourselves  in  that  matter. 

7 


90 

And  what  has  become  of  that  charge  now  ?  No  one  believes  it.  We 
have  triumphed  over  all  the  allegations  made  against  us  in  the 
matter,  and  thousands  of  individuals  are  left  to  weep  now,  because 
they  did  not  believe,  and  act  on  our  testimony  at  the  time  it  was 
given. 

So  in  the  present  case,  we  are  charged  with  publishing  forged 
letters,  and  even  with  forging  them  ourselves.  But  on  what 
authority  ?  Why,  on  the  assertion  of  Mr.  John  Spear  Smith,  of 
Baltimore,  made,  we  do  not  doubt,  in  all  sincerity,  but  evidently 
hastily,  and  without  giving  a  single  reason  for  his  coming  to  that 
conclusion. 

We  do  not  entertain  a  single  apprehenson  but  that  in  this  case, 
every  thing  will  very  soon  come  out  right,  and  that  we  shall  triumph 
over  our  enemies  and  their  slanders,  as  we  did  in  the  affair  of  the 
Bank  of  the  United  States.  JVbus  Verrons. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


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